Senator Cynthia Villar (PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/EDWIN BACASMAS)
Senator Cynthia Villar on Thursday grilled officials of the National Food Authority (NFA) for allegedly selling rice to traders and not being proactive in buying rice from local farmers despite the dwindling supply of government-subsidized rice in the country.
At the resumption of the Senate committees on agriculture and food, ways and means and finance hearing, Villar accused NFA of selling rice to traders despite the low supply of NFA rice.
“There is a report that they sold their stocks sa mga (to the) traders kaya naubos yung stock (that is why we are losing stock). It did not come from us, it came from other people. You have to explain this,” Villar said.
NFA Administrator Jayson Aquino confirmed this but clarified that they only sold old stocks of rice from years 2014 to 2016.
But Villar immediately questioned this saying: “Bakit yung mga 2014 (na stocks) nasa 2017 pa? What kind of management is that? Ang daming nabubulok sa inyong (bigas) when the people had no rice to eat.”
(Why is it those stocks in 2014 are still in 2017? A lot of rice supply is rotting when a lot of people had no rice to eat.)
Senator Bam Aquino went on to clarify if the NFA indeed has “rotting” rice.
“Hindi pa po sya nabubulok, ageing lang po ito. Tapos na po, earlier pa po yun naibenta… Meron po kaming marketing plan po, sinusunod lang po namin,” Aquino responded.
(They are not rotting, they are just ageing. It is done, we sold them earlier… We have a marketing plan, we are just following that.)
At this point Villar said a certain congressman from Mindoro told her that no representative from NFA has ever tried to buy rice from their area.
“Wala naman daw namimili sa kanila ng bigas. Eh mura lang daw bigas nila (They said no one buys rice from them. Even though their prices of rice is lower),” Villar said.
“Kaya nga hindi tayo mag-aagree dito dahil nga hindi naman nila amininin na ginawa nila yon at tayo hindi naman mako-convince na di nila ginawa yun kaya gusto ko matapos na itong hearing sa sisihan at study a system na di na mangyari yan kaya dapat i-reform natin ang NFA,” she added.
(That is why we don’t agree with this because they will not admit doing this and we are not convinced that they will not do this, that is why I want this hearing and blaming to end, why not study a system so this will not happen again. We should reform the NFA.)
The senator said NFA officials should be proactive in buying cheap rice from local farmers instead of resorting to importation.
“Ikaw, as NFA administrator wag ka maghintay sa farmers, palabasin mo mga tao mo, mamili kayo sa probinsya… Wala talaga kayong mabibili kung nakaupo ka lang sa opisina at maghihintay sa kanila na dumating sayo dahil ang mga farmer walang pasahe para pumunata sainyo, kayo ang lumabas at maging proactive na bumili sa kanila,” Villar stressed.
(You, as NFA administrator do not wait for farmer, sent out you men and buy rice from the province… We are not going to buy anything if you just sit around inside your office and wait for them to come to you because they do not have money to pay for the fare. You should be the one going out and be proactive in buying from them.)
“Paninigasan nila na di sila makabili ng rice dahil they want to import. That’s really the reason,” she said.
(They will be firm in not buying rice because they want to import.)
Aquino however, insisted that they are doing their jobs: “Pumupunta tayo (sa mga probinsya), wala lang po talagang nagtintinda.” (We went to the provinces and there is just no one selling.)
Villar fired back and said: “Kung ako ang NFA chairman kaya kong gawin yan, kaya kong bumili ng 17 at magbenta sa 25. Kaya tayo namomroblema kasi you were not able to do your job. Kung ako di senador at nag-NFA, magreresign ako kung di ko kayang magawa yan.”
(If I were the NFA chairman I can do that, I can buy at P17 and sell at P25. That is why we are having a problem because you were not able to do your job. If I was not a senator and I’m with the NFA, I will resign if I could not do that.)
The NFA is mandated to determine the rice importation program, including placing caps on imports to ensure fair trade.
The agency earlier bared the low rice buffer stock, which led to the importation of additional 250,000 metric tons of rice to ensure rice availability. /jpv
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