BUSINESS AS USUAL. Sellers at the La Trinidad Trading post on Tuesday (March 17) do their regular thing, cleaning and packing and loading on trucks the vegetables produced in Benguet towns including Mountain Province and Ifugao for transport to the various markets in the provinces and other regions. The facilities remain open to provide food supplies during the month-long Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine. (PNA photo by Liza T. Agoot)
LA TRINIDAD, Benguet – The province of Benguet has assured that the production and transport of vegetables from the farms will continue, Governor Melchor Diclas said on Tuesday.
He said they exempt the farmers from the strict home quarantine guidelines under the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine order of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Diclas, however, encouraged other members of the family of the farmers and the whole community to stay home and will be allowed to go outside their homes except for necessities.
He said there is no crowding of people on farms, which complies with the order on social distancing.
“Konti lang mga tao doon sa garden (There are few people in the farms),” Diclas said.
Diclas said vegetable is a basic commodity that is needed at this time of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-10) pandemic.
Aside from tending to the farms, farmers are also allowed to harvest their products, pack them for transport to the trading post in La Trinidad, where buyers and traders purchase in bulk that will be brought to the various markets in the country.
Benguet produces 80 to 85 percent of highland vegetables that are brought as far north as Aparri and Batanes to Visayas and Mindanao, including Palawan island.
Diclas said they will implement the social distancing guideline even for the truckers.
Joel Cervantes, trading post Liaison officer of the La Trinidad local government, said they will close other entry points at the facility as a control measure.
He said they have closed establishments at facilities that are not food-related. (PNA)
