August 28, 2024 was a big day for members of the Tboli Vegetable Farmers Association (TVFA).
Early that Wednesday, Renante Gegantoka, vice president of the TVFA, and some association members had to complete the delivery of assorted vegetables to Tupi, South Cotabato.
The municipality’s 58 daycare centers and one neighborhood-supervised play facility will use these vegetables as supplementary feeding ingredients for preschool children.
TVFA, an organization of 32 farmers, mostly Tboli indigenous people with an aggregate production area of about 80 hectares, recently bagged a P5.264-million contract to supply vegetables for hot meals of the Department of Social Welfare and Development’s (DSWD) Cycle 14 Supplementary Feeding Program (SFP) for Region 12, specifically in Tboli and Tupi towns and Koronadal City.
“Para sa amin, malaking tulong ito, kasi marami tayong matutulungan na mga member na nagtatanim ng gulay. So far, ang members namin happy,” Gegantoka said, referring to their group selling their produce to a government office at price rates previously only offered to traders and middlemen.
(For us, this is a big help because we can assist many members who are growing vegetables. So far, our members are happy.)
TVFA is one of 13 community-based organizations (CBOs) in the SOCCSKSARGEN Region that have recently signed purchase contracts worth a total of P28.07 million with DSWD through Negotiated Procurement-Community Participation (NPCP) as part of the Enhanced Partnership Against Hunger and Poverty (EPAHP).
These CBOs include Sustainable Livelihood Program (SLP) associations, farmer organizations, irrigators’ associations, and dairy farmer groups.
Over three months, these 13 CBOs provide DSWD XII with P4.42 M worth of rice, P13.06 M worth of vegetables, and P10.59 M worth of fresh milk for the Cycle 14 SFP.
“Masaya rin ang iba pang mga magsasaka sa aming lugar, kahit hindi miyembro, dahil nabibili ng organisasyon ang kanilang mga gulay sa mga panahon na magkulang ang ani ng mga miyembro namin,” he added.
(Other farmers in our area are also happy, even if they were not members, because the organization buys their vegetables during times when our members’ harvests are insufficient.)
Negotiated Procurement – Community Participation
Ibrahim Sangcupan, EPAPH regional program coordinator, described negotiated procurement-community participation (NPCP) as a simplified and streamlined procurement method that allows government agencies to directly engage with community groups, such as local farmers and fisherfolk, for the procurement of goods and services.
Sangcupan said NPCP is in accordance with Section 11 of Republic Act 11321, or the Sagip Saka Act of 2019, which mandates national and local government agencies to “directly purchase agricultural and fishery products from accredited farmers and fisher folk cooperatives and enterprises” to promote farmer and fisher folk enterprise development.
“This is also supported by GPPB Resolution No. 18 series of 2021 that provides the guidelines for the conduct of negotiated procurement-community participation, exclusively with community-based organizations,” he said.
Sangcupan said, “As a form of benefit, many farmers are provided ready and direct markets for their products by supplying the needs of government offices, thereby bypassing traders and middlemen who often offer disadvantageous prices.”
“Since the farmers are in direct negotiation with government bidding units, they get to sell their produce at prices being offered by the government, which is much higher than when they sell to traders,” he added.
Requirements to Participate in NPCP
Sangcupan stated further that for a community-based organization to qualify, it must be registered with an appropriate regulatory body, such as but not limited to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), the Cooperative Development Authority (CDA), the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP).
“They should also be registered with the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), must secure a mayor’s permit, and be able to issue receipts for their business transactions,” he said.
The CBOs can participate in the NPCP bidding process without registering for PhilGEPS.
“In Region 12, however, we train our CBOs on PhilGEPS to capacitate them so that when EPAHP is culminated, they are able to stand on their own and transact with government offices by other means,” Sangcupan said, adding, “We also train them to negotiate as suppliers of goods for private sector entities such as malls and supermarkets.”
As stated in the guidelines for conducting community participation in negotiated procurement, a community-based organization may secure contracts for the provision of goods amounting to P5 million.
However, a procuring entity may increase the amount of contract subject to the approval of the head of procuring entity (HoPE), who, in turn, should submit to GPPB a report on the amount of the approved budget contract and the reason for such.
Sangcupan noted that apart from the DSWD’s feeding program, EPAHP XII has also advocated for the conduct of NPCP in the school-based feeding program of the Department of Education, the programs of the National Nutrition Council, as well as activities and projects of other national line agencies and local government units that need goods from local farmers, fisherfolk and other marginalized sector organizations. (DED – PIA Region 12)
