[Freeman]
Freeman
July 12, 1999
By JEN T. LECHONSITO Correspondent In line with President Joseph “Erap”
Estrada’s thrust of ensuring food security and to increase the masses’
accessibility to basic commodities, the National Food Authority (NFA)
reported of having approved and made operational a total of 100 Erap
sari-sari store outlets in Cebu city and province since the program started
late last year.
This was learned by The Freeman from Ariel Bacatan, NFA’s information
officer, who stressed that the thrust of the administration’s Erap sari-sari
store program is to provide the masses living within the mountain barangays
and provinces a source of livelihood in order to assist in them in uplifting
their living conditions.
The Erap sari-sari store is a component of the administration’s pro-poor
campaign which functions primarily to serve the poor constituents of the
country living in far-flung areas or places far from the city proper, he
explained.
Bacatan elaborated that these people need not go to the city and do their
groceries since the Erap sari-sari store is provided with the complete goods
needed in one’s daily requirements.
Ding Solingon, NFA officer-in-charge for the Erap sari-sari store program,
told The Freeman in an interview that every municipality in Cebu province
has an average of one to three Erap stores. ~ Solingon said that an
individual’s application to put up an Erap store takes only one to two days
to process since the requirements are relatively easy.
Any individual can just proceed to an NFA office and pay the application fee
of P50,; a license fee of P400, and an NFA signboard fee of P30 and the
P15,000 cash deposit as a bond for the basic goods that NFA will provide the
applicant with to sell in his/her store. These items are pegged by NFA much
lower than the prevailing prices in the market, she disclosed, so as the
ERAP seller can also sell his goods at cometitive rates if not cheaper than
the neighborhood stores.
The license fee is required since under Presidential Decree No.4, an
individual has to pay such an amount for retailing rice secured from the
NFA, she said.
Even before these fees are paid, Solingon said, that the applicant has to
file a letter of intent with two passport size pictures along with the
sketch and location of the would-be Erap store to complete the licensing
process.
When the process is finished and awaiting NFA’s approval, NFA personnel will
still conduct a personal inspection of the store’s would-be location, she
stressed.
However, even if the application process is easy, the delivery of the goods
for sale usually takes a long time, she admitted, such as three weeks due to
the “first come, first serve” policy of NFA.
But she quickly pointed out that the delivery of rice is much more efficient
since the NFA has a standby supply of this staple.
Like all other government programs, the Erap sari-sari store program needs
effecient monitoring, she said.
According to her, this move is important since inevitably, there will be
stores who cannot maintain the number of goods for sale while other stores
may go bankrupt.
She cited an incident in Argao wherein they had to close one Erap store
which could no longer operate since the rice and other items it had were all
released on credit to teachers. And these teachers failed to settle their
debt, which lead to the store’s bankruptcy.
She said that the Erap store cab be found almost in all municipalities, as
far as Medellin, Daanbantayan, Tuburan and in the province’s southern
municipalities.
She added that Cebu city itself has a few Erap stores which are located in
Lahug, Banawa, Bulacao, Basak and in other barangays.
The store is laden with NFA rice, noodles, sugar, cooking oil, coffee and
milk, canned goods, biscuits and many more. — Jen T. Leconsito
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