MANILA, Philippines—Senators Loren Legarda and Mar Roxas Thursday accused Malacañang of prematurely clearing agriculture officials linked to the purchase of allegedly overpriced Vietnam rice.

In a statement, Legarda asked whether the Executive was trying to whitewash the controversy a day after Malacañang appeared to have accepted the explanation of Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, who had said that “there is no such thing as overpriced rice.”

“It is not for Malacañang to absolve the Department of Agriculture (DA) over its reported purchase of ‘overpriced’ rice from Vietnam totaling 1.5 million metric tons,” said Legarda.

“As the DA is under the Office of the President, any pronouncement by the Palace that the deal was aboveboard would be self-serving or, worse, come across to our people, rightly or wrongly, as an attempt to whitewash the matter,” she said.

The senator noted that the DA had been “emphatic” that the low prices of Vietnam rice as quoted by the news wire service Reuters had no basis.

“But let us see if this is true, during a public hearing of the Senate committee on food and agriculture of which I am the chair,” she said.

“Thus, it’s not like the issue can be laid to rest on the basis of the DA’s assertion. Let us hold a public hearing so we can see what the truth really is on this matter which may involve corruption in the amount of billions of pesos. It also involves food security, rice being the basic staple of our people,” she said.

Roxas, for his part, filed a resolution on Wednesday calling for an inquiry into the “overpricing” of the rice imported this year by the Philippine government from Vietnam.

In Senate Resolution No. 1163, Roxas pointed out that the DA had contracted the importation of 1.5 million metric tons of rice with a supplier named Vietnam Southern Food Corporation through a government-to-government bidding on December 16, 2008.