Gatchalian warns of looming food shortage amid health crisis

April 4, 2020

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian raised the alarm as the COVID-19 crisis has not only affected the people but the country's food security as well, citing some wet markets in Metro Manila have been selling carabao meat due to beef shortage.

Gatchalian added that traders and farmers have had difficulty transporting and delivering goods from Benguet and other provinces to Metro Manila.

They had to stop at several checkpoints before queuing at several trading posts to wait for buyers, he said.

Eighty percent of the country's highland vegetable requirements, such as carrot, cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, and lettuce, come from Benguet.

The Philippine Association of Meat Processors, Inc. (PAMPI) has earlier warned of possible shortage in meat products by mid-April because quarantine restrictions impeded the delivery of raw materials to manufacturing plants.

Poultry farmers have also been finding it difficult to supply chicken to Metro Manila and some parts of Luzon due to roadblocks and personnel restrictions that have affected their deliveries and supply chains.

This, despite orders from the national government to allow food deliveries through checkpoints.

Gatchalian said the national government should have guidelines for members of the Philippine National Police stationed at the checkpoints to follow.

These guidelines should be in coordination with the local government units (LGUs) so they can synchronize their acts  to ensure the unimpeded transport of food supply and other food raw materials.

Gatchalian said authorities have to sustain keep the country's food supply chain.

Gatchalian expressed fears the delay in the movement of goods would force unscrupulous traders to hoard commodities and manipulate the price in the market.

"We should get our acts together. This is a classic example of lack of coordination between the national and local governments even with the local PNP", said Gatchalian.

The lawmaker said we have yet to see the impact on the ground of the newly-launched food resiliency protocol of the Department of Agriculture (DA), which aims to speed up the transport of major agri-fishery commodities from the provinces to Metro Manila and other urban areas in Luzon.

"It is high time for the national government to check for themselves the situation on the ground on why there are delays in the delivery of food supplies. We must act at once or see the country plunge into a food crisis. We can't afford to have another kind of crisis," the senator concluded.