Cagayan de Oro City Councilor and ABC Liga ng mga Barangay President Marlo L. Tabac has called for the decentralization of the government’s ₱20 per kilo rice program to ease the burden of long queues at the National Food Authority (NFA) warehouse in Barangay Tablon.
In his special report on Monday, Tabac highlighted the plight of senior citizens, persons with disabilities, and pregnant women who often line up as early as 5:00 a.m. and wait until the official selling time at 8:00 a.m. He noted that many endure hours under the heat or cold, only for some to be left unattended due to the NFA’s limited capacity of serving 500 to 600 buyers daily despite higher demand.
Tabac personally witnessed the struggles of residents and stressed that the current setup is unsustainable. To address this, he proposed expanding the distribution to the barangay level, using covered courts as venues and coordinating with local government units, the Department of Agriculture, and the NFA. This, he said, would make the subsidized rice more accessible to the poor and reduce the hardship caused by overcrowding at a single site.
This move underscores growing calls for a more community-based approach to ensure that the government’s rice subsidy truly reaches those most in need.
