(INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE)
MANILA, Philippines — The National Food Authority (NFA) has appointed an officer-in-charge a week after its previous OIC was slapped with a preventive suspension order in connection with the questionable sale of its buffer rice stocks.
The NFA Council on Monday appointed Department of Agriculture (DA) Director Larry Lacson as the agency’s OIC administrator, the DA announced in a statement.
READ: DA chief back as NFA administrator https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1917042/fwd-da-chief-back-as-nfa-admin
According to the agriculture department, the NFA council, led by Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr., unanimously appointed Lacson during a “special meeting.”
“The NFA Council has unanimously appointed Director Larry Lacson as OIC-Administrator to make sure the operations of the agency runs smoothly, especially during this harvest season. The NFA is an integral part of our effort to ensure the country’s food security,” Laurel Jr. said in a statement.
The DA director is the second NFA OIC administrator appointed this month.
NFA’s previous OIC administrator, Piolito Santos, was suspended by the Office of the Ombudsman on March 11, two weeks after his predecessor, Roderico Bioco, was also suspended.
In the announcement, the DA said that Lacson is a newly appointed director of the DA and “brings to the NFA a unique perspective in running the day-to-day operations of the agency given his extensive experience in both the private sector and in government.”
Lacson, a doctor of agricultural science, is also a member of the Philippine Food Expo Inc. and a former co-chairman of the agriculture and fisheries committee of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, it added.
His main task, the DA said, is to ensure the country has sufficient buffer rice stocks.
The Ombudsman issued preventive suspensions to 141 NFA officials and staff as investigations are conducted into the agency’s controversial sale of its rice stocks to private traders.
The Ombudsman previously lifted the suspension on 23 NFA warehouse supervisors on March 15 upon the recommendation of the investigators.