P25-M rice distribution caravan kicks off in Ecija town
SAN ANTONIO, Nueva Ecija — The provincial government led by Gov. Aurelio M. Umali and his younger brother Vice Gov. Emmanuel Antonio M. Umali recently went house-to-house in the town’s 16 barangays to launch a three-day rice distribution caravan totaling more than 25,000 bags worth about P25-million.
The Umali siblings were accompanied by Mayor Arvin C. Salonga, Galing sa Puso Partylist Rep. Jose Gay “GP” Padiernos and members of the Usapang Malasakit sa Lipunan tele-radio team led by provincial administrator Atty. Alejandro Abesamis, assessor Atty. OJ Cornejo, tourism officer Atty. Joma San Pedro, and Father Arnold Abelardo, provincial IATF spokesman during the caravan which kicked off Thursday and ended here on Saturday.
Joining them in the rice distribution to all of the town’s 16 barangays were Vice Mayor Julie Maxwell, municipal budget officer Armando Cruz, municipal engineer Leonor Balcos, MPDO August Ortiz, members of the provincial board and the municipal council, and other local, barangay and police officials.
The three-day rice caravan kicked off Thursday in five barangays — Maugat, Lawang Kupang, Tikiw, San Mariano and Papaya for an initial total of 8,003 bags of 25-kilos of Malasakit rice distributed.
Then after which, Gov. Umali and his entire UML team went live over the governor’s TV48/dwNE tele-radio program which was held at the second floor of the mayor’s office.
Salonga thanked the Umali siblings for their love and compassion to his people. He said: “Ipinapakita dito ni Gov. Oyie at Vice Gov. Doc Anthony ang tunay na malasakit at pagmamahal sa taumbayan na hindi lamang tuwing halalan dapat madama ang pagkalinga ng naninilbihan sa pamahalaan kundi araw-araw ito dapat at higit ngayong may krisis at pandemiya.”
Overall, with Friday and Saturday’s additional roll-out to the other 11 barangays of 17,441 bags of rice, it was learned that a total of 25,244 bags worth P25.244-million have been distributed to all of the town’s 16 barangays.
The Umali’s rice distribution program is a by-product of the Provincial Food Council’s palay-buying spree program which was implemented by the provincial government in 2019 to purchase at a higher price the local produce of palay farmers, who were reeling from low palay prices in the market due to the impact of the Rice Tariffication Law implementation.
