With the unearthing of the sale of 79,000 bags of rice to select traders sans public bidding and without the authority of the governing council of the National Food Authority (NFA), farmers' groups have been stepping up and exposing the massive shenanigans of the agency since 2021.
This means that the Pandora’s box of NFA is now widely opened and expect more revelations of dirty transactions involving the agency in previous administrations that had been carried on now, despite the change in presidents over the years.
Simultaneous probes are being conducted by the legislative and executive departments of dubious affairs of the NFA, which had not just tarnished the already-stained image of the agency but has also deprived the farmers of a ‘last resort’ market for their palay and the consumers (and farmers as well as they also consume rice) of a cheaper rice in the market, served by greedy wholesalers and retailers. The continued suspension by the Ombudsman of 99 NFA personnel, mostly warehousemen of 79 closed warehouses will surely have an impact on the agency’s operations, especially now that harvest is ongoing.
To ensure that no major disruptions this ongoing harvest would take place, the Department of Agriculture has designated the next- in- rank unsuspended warehouse supervisors to take over– make an inventory of existing stocks, open and fumigate the padlocked warehouses (which were closed during the price cap imposed in November) and prepare to buy more palay from farmers, who DA Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. opined must not be left at the mercy of a restricted market option.
Already, Rep. Wilbert Lee (Agri Partylist) reported that the closure of NFA warehouses in Nueva Ecija has led to a P2 per kg drop in palay farmgate prices.
The NFA Council has appointed former Plant Industry Director Larry Lacson as OIC of the agency. Lacson explained that NFA’s mandated buying price for palay is P16 to P19 for fresh and P19 to P23 for dry and clean. The NFA has a P17.2 billion budget for palay procurement.
Ombudsman Samuel Martires disclosed a deliberate attempt by higher-ups in NFA to suppress some documents from his probers in connection with ongoing probes. He said his investigators are only being given a partial list of warehouses and nothing more.
DA Secretary Tiu Laurel wanted the probe on NFA to go as far back as 5 or more years.
But the Federation of Free Farmers national manager Raul Montemayor said that in 2021 and 202s the NFA sold at least 9.6 million sacks of NFA rice worth P12 billion to private traders without public bidding calling the disclosure of 75,000 bags of supposedly aging rice to select traders at P25 per kg as just “the tip of the iceberg.”
Much larger transactions occurred in previous years. In 2021 alone, nearly 5.6 million bags were allowed to be procured by select traders in the guise also of aging stocks. These constituted ⅔ of total volume disposed by the agency that year with the balance going to calamity assistance and relief operations.
Again in 2022, NFA sold 4 million sacks of supposedly old rice to select traders, which constituted 70 percent of total sales for the year.
Montemayor, in a statement said: "The rapid disposition of its rice supplies in 2021 and 2022 resulted in the severe depletion of NFA's inventory, with the agency having only 3.5 days of national consumption requirement at the end of 2022," the FFF said adding that the 9.6 million sacks sold in both years worth P12 billion is based on the price that year of a 50-kilo sack of P1,250.
No wonder in the few months that I was at the National Rice Program, it was NFA that was lobbying hard for imports from Thailand and India – even if the Rice Tariffication Law prohibits NFA to directly import but to buy from importers supposedly for its buffer stock. Officials must have known how big a killing they would make from buying imported rice at a lower cost and reselling the same in the local market for a huge profit, which does not land in the government coffers but in their pockets.
The group said the 9.6 million sacks sold in 2021 and 2022 amounted to P12 billion, as a 50-kilo sack was sold for P1,250.
Newly appointed NFA OIC Lacson said he was ordered by Laurel to probe alleged improper rice sale of NFA from 2019.
#WeTakeAStand #OpinYon #BareTruth #ColumnbyRosedelaCruz