DAVAO CITY—Acting Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte recently received four 40-footer refrigerated containers from the National Food Authority and Food Terminal Inc. (FTI) for the Davao City Food Terminal Complex (DFTC).
Duterte and City Agriculturist Leo Brian Leuterio received the storage facilities from NFA Administrator Atty. Judy Carol L. Dansal, FTI President Robert S. Tan, and NFA XI Manager Dianne A. Silva.
The city information office said the cold storage facility is a component of the Regional Food Terminal Program of the NFA and FTI to serve as as a post-harvest facility and storage “if there is an oversupply of fruits and vegetables during harvest seasons.”
Each facility costs P17 million.
The donation came as the city is in the final stages of crafting the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) for the operation of the DFTC.
Leuterio said the IRR may be completed in April. His office has been coordinating with other offices and agencies which form the technical working group. The IRR was also regularly referred to the City Legal Office to ensure that it was aligned with the other laws.
The food terminal structure has been long completed, he added.
The City Cooperative Development Office (CCDO), meantime, has rolled out another round of “Coop Serbisyo Caravan” to boost the organizational viability and business sustainability of the micro and small cooperatives.
The caravan runs from April 4 to April 29 and by district schedule. It started in Calinan District on April 4, in Toril District on April 8 and in Marilog District on April 12. After the Holy Week, the caravan would be in Talomo District on April 19, in Buhangin District on April 20, in Tugbok District on April 21-22, in the Poblacion area on April 25 and in Paquibato District on April 29.
Luzminda C. Eblamo, CCDO officer in charge, said the caravan will clarify issues and concerns among cooperatives, mainly on organizational matters and continuity programs. This would comprise what the office describes as “part of the social recovery efforts of the city government to help micro and small cooperatives.”
“We have 756 cooperatives in Davao City as of 2020. Of the 756, only 400 are, what we call, operating coops. So the number is quite big.
There are more than 300 coops for dissolution. These are those who are non-compliant. And these are the cooperatives that we are trying to help,” Eblamo said.
“Statistics would tell us that for the past three years that we conducted this Serbisyo Caravan, we increased the number of the compliant cooperative. This is why we make sure that we do it every first quarter of the year,” she added.
She said the Coop Serbisyo Caravan is a form of one-stop shop for these cooperatives.
“If our cooperatives want to go to the Department of Agriculture to ask for programs that they can avail, they can go to the desk of City Agriculturist Office, it is only an example,” she said, adding that her office, as an accredited training provider by CDA, can help provide trainings for the cooperatives.