Sen. Joel Villanueva was alarmed over the lapses and irregularities of the National Food Authority (NFA) in its rice procurement process.
“What happened to the NFA’s procurement process, especially the NFA people who directly buy and sell from the farmers in the agricultural regions?” Villanueva asked NFA Administrator Jason Aquino.
Aquino cited two reasons for the failure of his office to buy rice stock – high prices of rice from local farmers and importation delays.
He said the problems within NFA were “inexcusable” since the government agency should always ensure that the public would have rice.
“The NFA seriously needs to improve the implementation of its rice procurement policies such as the direct procurement of rice from farmers and cut out the middlemen and hasten the importation process to replenish the NFA’s buffer stocks and insufficiencies,” the senator said.
“These lapses are simply inexcusable since we are talking about food security,” Villanueva stressed. “Our government should look after the welfare of our kababayans and ensure that there is food on the table of every Filipino.”