Graft probers asked to look into DA rice importation

LUCENA CITY—Was the imported Vietnam rice overpriced or not?

Activist lawyer Argee Guevarra urged the Department of Justice and the Inter-Agency Anti-Graft Coordinating Council (IAAGCC) to investigate the controversial importation of 187,000 metric tons (MT) of Vietnam rice last April to find out if the deal was overpriced by P450 million.

Guevarra said the National Bureau of Investigation should also form a special task force to examine and investigate the rice importation transactions of the National Food Authority (NFA), an agency under the Department of Agriculture (DA).

Hinting that there are insiders who are willing to tell all, the activist lawyer is also asking government protection for the safety and protection of his informants from the rice industry who will reveal the unscrupulous practice behind the rice importation.

However, NFA administrator Orlan Calayag strongly denied that the Vietnam rice was overpriced.

In his two statements posted on the NFA website on Monday and Tuesday, Calayag claimed that media reports on overpriced rice imports and shortage were being orchestrated by “those who have been affected by our efforts to cleanse the NFA.”

Last week, Guevarra urged Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala to conduct a study on rice importation, claiming that the cost of NFA rice importation from Vietnam last April was overpriced by P450 million.

Guevarra said he wrote Justice Secretary Leila De Lima and Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales to look into allegations of corruption at the DA and NFA “with the same zeal it has demonstrated” in the pork barrel scam.

In his letter, Guevarra urged the IAAGCC to order an investigation of the NFA’s 2013 rice imports for what he calls “white collar economic sabotage.”

Calayag, however, said Guevarra’s allegation of overprice was “without basis” and defended the additional importation of 18,700 MT of rice from Vietnam as legal.