How a Small Bohol Town Sells Rice at P29/Kilo

Dawn has broken. It is Thursday, 5 a.m., and Elvira Allin is already up. For Jagnaanons like her, today is the day that they buy rice—at only P29 per kilo.

- By Jasper Emmanuel Arcalas and Elijah Felice Rosales

JAGNA, Bohol — Dawn has broken. It is Thursday, 5 a.m., and Elvira Allin is already up. For Jagnaanons like her, today is the day that they buy rice—at only P29 per kilo.

Allin, 60, is ecstatic even if she must traverse 21 kilometers of hilly slopes and rough roads in this municipality located 68 kilometers from Tagbilaran.

From Barangay Boctol, she hails a tricycle with three neighbors to reach Barangay Balili, where a small market fair is put up, selling food stocks at below-retail prices.

At the coast, the women workers of the Jagna Progressive Vendors Association (JAPVA) are pouring bangsi (flying fish), bangus (milkfish), and kitong (rabbit fish) in ice boxes. The fish come from across Bohol, but all of them are headed to one location: the covered court of Balili.

Rosana Mongaya, a member of JAPVA, picks up the ice box with her slight build, making every nerve in her arm pop up. She struggles to mount it onto the van headed to Balili, but she manages, reminding herself of what she could earn later in the day.