BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The police stations of Sagay, Sipalay, and Murcia in Negros Occidental also established their own community pantries, following the free food stalls set up by the police stations in Toboso and Escalante City on Tuesday.
P/Lt. Abegael Donasco, deputy spokesperson of the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office, said yesterday that the NOCPPO is replicating this good deed from the Maginhawa Community Pantry that exemplifies the bayanihan spirit among people in the community, especially that the Covid-19 pandemic is still affecting the country.
This project of NOCPPO is called “Barangayanihan”, she added.
In these pantries, Donasco said the police stations will initially provide goods, including donations from stakeholders and benevolent donors.
This is open to all and those who lack can take whatever they need, while those who have something to give, they can just leave the goods on the pantry, she added.
Negros Occidental Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson lauded the community pantries that have started sprouting in Bacolod City and some areas of the province, and described those as the old Filipino culture of “bayanihan”.
“It’s a very Filipino gesture that when in times of crisis, we help each other,” Lacson said.
P/Brig. Gen. Rolando Miranda, regional police director of Western Visayas, in a radio interview, strongly debunked claims that the PNP is doing a profiling or Red-tagging of community pantry organizers.
Miranda even encouraged the establishment of community pantries, that are big help to those badly in need amid the pandemic. He added that PRO 6 is more than willing to extend assistance to community pantries.*
