Agriculture chief asked to resign over rice import anomaly

Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala should resign over his alleged inaction on the anomaly involving the government’s importation of rice, a lawyer said Tuesday.

Lawyer Argee Guevarra said that Alcala was the alleged mastermind and ultimate beneficiary of the anomaly.

Guevarra claimed that on top of the 187,000 metric tons of rice import that was officially announced by the National Food Authority (NFA), the agency authorized the purchase of 187,000 metric tons more without prior approval by the Fiscal Incentive Review Board of the Department of Finance.

“This is downright anomalous. The additional rice import did not have a budgetary cover,” said Guevarra over Inquirer Radio 990AM.

Guevarra said the 187,000 metric tons of rice import, as reported in the State of the Nation of President Benigno Aquino III last July was not the correct figure because our actual importation was 205, 700 metric tons.

“The adjustment of 10 percent might have gone to some other’s pocket,” he said.

The lawyer recounted that during the time of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, rice was imported at $710 and was sold at P18.

He said, however, that during the Aquino administration, rice was imported at a lower price of $429.25 but sold at a higher price range of P28-36.

Guevarra said the lack of transparency between the dealings of the Department of Agriculture and NFA has resulted in overpricing.

“There is something fundamentally wrong,” he said.

Meanwhile, Guevarra said that another  500,000 metric tons of rice would be imported by NFA for the victims of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international codename: Haiyan).

“I don’t know where they find the heart and conscience to import another one and use the tragedy as an excuse,” he said.

He said the agriculture secretary has announced before Yolanda struck the country that the DA has reached 97 percent of rice sufficiency.

The secretary, however, after Yolanda said the government would need to import rice to address the shortage.