The Department of Trade and Industry-Regional Operations Group (DTI-ROG) continues to cater its services nationwide responding not only to the needs of the micro enterprises but also to the consumers, particularly in the rural areas including those in remote island and marginalized locales.

Through the agency’s ‘Diskwento Caravan’, DTI has been supplying basic necessities and prime commodities to the barangays of Zamboanga City during the COVID-19 lockdown.

The initiative is in convergence with the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) ‘Kadiwa on Wheels’ bringing retailers/producers of fresh agri-fishery products on site for consumers to avail such products also at very reasonable prices. While these caravans are still drawing crowds from various communities, social distancing protocol is still strictly observed at all times.

Since April 2020, DTI and DA have already served six (6) barangays benefiting almost four thousand customers while bringing in a sales of more than two million pesos for the participating retailers and producers in Zamboanga City, and soon will conduct four (4) more caravans for the first half of May 2020.

For other provinces, it has already conducted 4 Diskwento Caravans in Zamboanga del Sur with 585 customers generating P149,000 sales, 4 rolling stores in 7 barangays of Zamboanga del Norte earning sales of P105,000, and another runs in Zamboanga Sibugay catered 178 customers and generated sales of P136,000.

All the DTI provincial offices in Zamboanga Peninsula are also set to conduct their Diskwento Caravan for the whole month of May 2020 in their localities. Schedules of these caravans will still vary depending on the status of the community quarantines and the number of COVID-19 patients in their respective provinces/cities.

DTI-IX Regional Director Ceferino Rubio continues to call on interested consumers to avail the discounts being offered during the Diskwento Caravan.

Undersecretary Blesila Lantayona spearheads the DTI-Regional Operations Group.♦

Date of Release: 18 May 2020