Deputy Minority Leader and Buhay Rep. Lito Atienza called for the resignation of Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol, and the heads of the National Food Authority (NFA) and its Council, over the rice crisis in some parts of the country.
READ: Zamboanga City under state of calamity due to rice shortage
“The NFA, NFA Council, the secretary of agriculture, if you cannot handle the proper provision of food for the Filipino… mag-resign kayong lahat,” Atienza dared, referring to NFA administrator Jason Aquino and NFA Council Chair and Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Piñol.
“Give other people some other chance to handle the problem. We cannot accept the theory that we have to import,” Atienza said, adding that the greatest threat the country faces now is food shortage.
“The biggest threat to national security now is not the NPA (New People’s Army), Joma (Sison), not even the West Philippine Sea issue, today the threat is (the) acute food shortage,” the lawmaker lamented.
According to Atienza, Piñol, as the Secretary of the DA, should be “on top of the issue” on food security as the “problem is going around above their heads.”
Atienza further hit the NFA and its Council and floated the idea of abolishing it for playing the blame game. “Probably we should abolish it… nagtuturuan lang sila,” the lawmaker said.
Meanwhile, Minority Leader Danilo Suarez warned the agriculture agency to prepare for a possible deferment of their budget.
“This is an advanced warning because we’ll be asking for a lot of deferment and we’ll be demanding for a reorganization,” he said.
In a meeting at the House of Representatives on Tuesday, NFA Deputy Administrator Tomas Escarez blamed the “bureaucracy” within the Council for the delay in the government initiative to import rice to address the country’s shortage.
However, Department of Trade and Industry Undersecretary Ruth Castelo, who is also part of the Council, said it was NFA’s late submission of its rice supply inventory that led to the delay in the procurement of imported rice. /vvp
READ: NFA, council swap charges on rice crisis
NFA exec blames its council’s ‘bureaucracy’ in delay of rice importation