Top officials of the National Food Authority including its former administrator Lito Banayo (inset) gave big-time smugglers legal cover in importing rice using farmers’ cooperatives as fronts, an investigation of rice smuggling in the country showed. INQUIRER PHOTO/RAFFY LERMA
MANILA, Philippines–Former National Food Authority (NFA) Administrator Angelito Banayo on Monday said the import permits issued by the agency during his term were awarded through open and transparent bidding processes as approved by the NFA Council headed by Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala.
In a statement, Banayo said the NFA actually earned a record P4.5 billion in service fees from the bidding processes, the only time the agency earned such an amount in its history. At the same time, the supply and prices of both NFA rice at P27 and commercial rice at a band of P30 to P35 per kilo were stable during his tenure.
Banayo described as “purely speculative and devoid of truth” the disclosures made to the Inquirer by sources privy to the ongoing investigation that top NFA officials had provided big-time smugglers with the legal cover to import rice using farmers’ cooperatives as fronts.
Banayo, his deputy Jose Cordero and four suspected rice smugglers are expected to be charged with economic sabotage and graft before the Department of Justice (DOJ) by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), according to the sources.
Banayo pointed out that the Bureau of Customs (BOC) was “very much involved” in the prequalification of prospective bidders of import permits with that agency’s Interim Customs Accreditation Registration Unit giving the necessary accreditation to the companies and cooperatives wanting to join the NFA bidding process.
“I am as yet unaware of the basis for the NBI recommendations to the DOJ. It is on record that the matter of granting rice import permits to farmers’ cooperatives was a policy matter insisted upon by the Secretary of Agriculture who chaired the NFA Council, in spite of my objections. It was a policy started by the previous administration, which I immediately questioned upon my assumption,” he said.
Banayo said the BOC was the primary government agency tasked with preventing smuggling and he found it strange that it was not among those being recommended charged by the NBI.
“I do hope and pray that a thorough and impartial investigation by the DOJ based on facts and the law will clear up matters soonest,” he said.
Banayo was NFA administrator from July 2010 to Oct. 30, 2012, when he resigned to run for a congressional seat in Butuan City.
He said that in the previous administration, import permits were given out on a “first come, first served basis” while during his time, “we did public bidding.”
Strict prequalification
He recalled that it was in April 2011 when the NFA was given final instructions to conduct bidding, a few months from the lean season of July. He cited NFA records stating that 379 organizations participated.
A bidding was publicly conducted and lasted for 60 hours, from 8 a.m. of Day 1 and ending at noon of Day 3, he said.
“The strict prequalification of bidders underwent thorough scrutiny not only from NFA officials but by the bidders themselves. Documents submitted attesting to the genuineness and veracity of organizations were issued by government agencies such as but not limited to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Department of Trade and Industry, Cooperative Development Authority, National Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Internal Revenue, and the Bureau of Customs,” Banayo said.
He pointed out that import permits had to be issued immediately prior to the lean season.
“Postqualification had to be completed the soonest. Had the NFA delayed further, a situation like the present where there is not enough buffer stock to ensure availability of rice to consumers at table prices might have occurred as early as 2012,” Banayo said.
He also pointed out that the primary mandate of the NFA was to ensure the steady supply and stable price of rice.
“This, with all due respect, the NFA was able to do under my watch, though imperfect any system in government there may be. Other agencies equally have their own roles to play and the NFA is not the primary agency tasked to check and prevent smuggling, although it can certainly help in preventing such,” Banayo said.