Thousands benefit from Lanao Sur "rolling stores"

COTABATO CITY --- Maranaw families benefited from the “rolling stores” roaming the towns of Lanao del Sur to sell cheap food supplies amid the province-wide anti-coronavirus quarantine lockdown.

More than a dozen stores on trucks had initially toured 13 towns in Lanao del Sur from March 26 to 31, from where Maranaws brought food supplies from operators, among them officials of local business groups.

Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong, Jr. said Tuesday he is thankful to the Bangon Marawi Chamber of Commerce and other blocs of Maranaw merchants for embarking on the rolling store project to ease the plight of residents in far-flung areas affected by the anti-COVID quarantine.

Adiong’s office provided technical and security support to the rolling store project while the entrepreneurs behind it toured the towns of Piagapo, Maguing, Mulondo, Saguiran, Tamparan, Kapai and Tagoloan in the first district of the province from March 26 to 31.

Rolling stores also toured around Bacolod Kalawi, Sultan Damalundong, Tugaya, Madalum, Balindong and Madamba in the second district of Lanao del Sur during the period.

Besides basic food supplies and other merchandise needed in the homes of residents in the province, rolling store operators also sold liquefied petroleum gas in cylinders to residents of interior barangays.

Adiong placed the entire Lanao del Sur, which has 39 towns and covers more than 90 barangays in its capital, Marawi City, under quarantine since March 19 as part of the provincial government's COVID-19 containment efforts.

Elian Macala, president of the Bangon Marawi Chamber of Commerce, said Tuesday their rolling store project is a joint humanitarian initiative of traders in Lanao del Sur and in Marawi City and the office of Adiong.

He said hundreds of Maranaw families had procured food supplies from the rolling stores.

Adiong and Macala’s group are to expand the operation of the rolling stores in more towns in the province in the coming weeks.