Senate eyes probe into anomalous sale of NFA rice at low prices

Sacks of rice are stockpiled at the National Food Authority warehouse in Quezon City in this photo taken in 2020. (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate will investigate the reported sale of rice by the National Food Authority (NFA) to certain traders at low prices disadvantageous to the government, Sen. Cynthia Villar said on Friday.

“We will investigate that. I have personal experience concerning that. That’s why I am not happy about it,” Villar said in Filipino in an ambush interview

Asked if she already had a resolution on the issue, Villar said her office would still craft one because the issue just came up.

On Thursday, the Department of Agriculture started its probe of the supposed sale of NFA rice stocks to unidentified traders without the usual bidding process.

Mafia within NFA?

In light of the alleged scheme, claims likewise circulated that there’s a “mafia” within NFA.

Villar emphasized, however, that this was old news.

“That’s old. It’s not new findings. That’s why I passed the Rice Tariffication Law because they import rice exclusively and then they conspire with the cartel. So we removed the power to import from them. They only have the power to buy from the local farmers and we liberalized the importation of rice,” Villar said.

Villar noted that instead of dealers and traders, the NFA should sell rice to Filipinos in need.

“That’s subsidized by the government. It’s cheap. It shouldn’t be given to traders. It should be given to people for them to save money, especially those who are poor… so that they can buy cheap rice,” she said.