Memorandum of agreement signing between the BJMP-Kalinga and Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries Organizations on March 12, 2025 at the Golden Berries Hotel and Convention Center in San Juan, Tabuk City. (Photo credit: DAR-Kalinga)
TABUK CITY, Kalinga (PIA) – The Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) in Kalinga has signed a marketing agreement with local cooperatives as part of a collaborative food security program for persons deprived of liberty (PDLs) at the Kalinga District Jail.
The arrangement provides a market for the cooperatives’ agricultural products while ensuring PDLs receive a supply of healthy, nutritious food.
The Department of Agrarian Reform facilitated the memorandum of agreement (MOA) between BJMP and three agrarian reform beneficiaries’ organizations (ARBOs): the Bulanao Multipurpose Cooperative, Alliance of Tribes for Oneness and Development Credit Cooperative, and Agbannawag Tabuk Organic Practitioners Marketing Cooperative.
“These are significant milestones in DAR’s effort to help our ARBs through our conduit ARBOs,” DAR Kalinga head Adela S. Damaso said.
“Remember that you, ARBOs, are engaged in social enterprise, combining business and service. You sell your products to the BJMP to serve the persons deprived of liberty,” Damaso told the cooperatives.
Under the agreement, the ARBOs, involved in producing and trading farm products such as rice, legumes, vegetables and poultry, will ensure a continuous and sufficient supply of nutritious food for the PDLs’ daily needs.
DAR’s Enhanced Partnership Against Hunger and Poverty (EPAHP) program aims to improve food security and increase farm income. It began as a collaboration among stakeholders led by DAR, the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the Department of Agriculture, and evolved into a nationwide initiative involving more implementing agencies and participants.
BJMP is pleased to collaborate with the ARBOs to address food security in jails.
“We are addressing critical issues like food security within the prison system, ensuring that PDLs have access to nutritious, affordable meals that align with the budget,” said BJMP-Kalinga Jail Warden Senior Inspector Noel Dulnuan.
“Together, we are making meaningful strides toward alleviating poverty and hunger, one PDL at a time,” Dulnuan added. (JDP/IOS-PIA CAR, Kalinga)
