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DTI conducted rolling store at the Philex Mines, Tuba, Benguet on April 17, 2020.

The implementation of Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) in the entirety of Luzon after President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration of our country under a state of National Health Emergency gave birth to the conceptualization by the Department of Trade and Industry-Cordillera Administrative Region (DTI-CAR) and Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong of the Rolling Store, the Cordillera way.

The objective is to bring basic necessities and essential products closer and accessible to far-flung barangays and spare the constituents the burden of having to travel to the central business district for their needs. This project is a public-private partnership at its best with Baguio City local government, DTI, Department of Agriculture (DA) and partner retailers/big groceries in the city. On its 37th roll-out last April 25, 2020, which started on March 24, 2020, it has already generated a total sales of PhP 24 million and has benefited a total of 22,000 households in 215 barangays. DTI still have 19 Rolling Stores to be implemented until first week of May 2020 for a total of fifty-six (56) roll-outs.

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The concept and strategic implementation of the Rolling Store project was presented in the March 19, 2020 meeting with Mayor Magalong and DTI-CAR with the ten (10) top grocery owners in Baguio who have the capacity to deliver volumes of the basic and prime commodities in far-reaching barangays of Baguio City and Benguet, respectively. The retailer-partners with DA’s Kadiwa on Wheels and the City Market Vendors Association,

likewise cooperated fully. The retailer-partners sustained stock level requirements and provided logistics for free in the delivery and sale of goods where the barangays are. The project brought together the converging partners from the government and the private sectors to collaborate and to work together for the barangay folks who have less access of their basic needs because of the ECQ guidelines and where lockdown of the municipalities has become the order of the day. Post rolling stores assessment by DTI and the LGUs concerned are likewise conducted with the objective of improving succeeding runs.

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Another rollout done in Lucban, Baguio Cluster of 15 barangays last April 24, 2020.

The Rolling Store reduced the influx of people in the city markets to buy their basic necessities from canned goods, coffee, salt, noodles to rice, meat, poultry and marine products to fruits and vegetables. By bringing said goods nearest to them in clustered barangays, the ECQ guidelines are well complied with where social distancing has become a norm to everyone. Indeed, the Rolling Store project of CAR is BRINGING GOODS CLOSER, KEEPING YOU SAFER AS A CONSUMER.

The project is just one of the initiatives of DTI-Regional Operations Group spearheaded by Undersecretary Blesila Lantayona in response to COVID-19 crisis. ♦

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Date of Release: 28 April 2020