Aquino says NFA papers open to scrutiny, blasts Evasco for defying Duterte order

National Food Authority (NFA) Administrator Jason Aquino on Thursday said their documents were open to scrutiny as he responded to the decision of the NFA’s policy-making body asking the Commission of Audit (COA) to investigate the agency’s management.

Aquino deplored allegations of irregularities in the agency’s rice distribution activities, saying its operations were “transparent.”

He also defended the NFA’s need to import the staple and accused the NFA Council of defying the President’s order.

“The NFA Council has been defying President Duterte’s order for an immediate importation of the 250,000 MT buffer stock replenishment,” he said.

‘Artificial’ shortage

Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco on Wednesday accused the NFA of creating an “artificial” rice shortage, saying there was enough rice in the country.

Evasco, who heads the 18-member NFA Council, said they also received reports that the NFA management released to the market 1 million bags of rice monthly in October, November, December and January, the period considered as the harvest season for palay.

The NFA should have released the rice during the lean months instead, he said.

But the NFA defended the move, explaining that part of the agency’s rice releases during the harvest season—totaling 784,429 bags in 2017—went to the relief operations of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Office of Civil Defense, and local government units (LGUs).

Adjusted distribution

The NFA chief said that the 250,000 metric tons of rice the country imported last year started arriving only in late August, and thus, distribution during the lean months was adjusted due to low inventory.

With the arrival of fresh stocks, the NFA also needed to release older stocks to the market to prevent grain deterioration, his statement said.

Records from the NFA showed that in the last 10 years, the agency’s rice distribution was lowest in 2017 at 14 million bags. The highest distribution volume, at 40 million bags, was recorded during the rice shortage in 2008.

“(Evasco) has yet to approve the terms of reference (TOR) for the importation of 250,000 MT that NFA management has submitted for approval, adopting the 2017 rice importation TOR, under an open tender or government private scheme,” he added.

According to the NFA management, it requested the NFA Council as early as October last year to allow the agency to replenish its rice reserve through importation to prevent the possibility of an NFA rice shortage.

Aquino said the NFA had intensified efforts to beef up its rice stocks from local produce by adopting “innovative means” to convince farmers to sell their palay to the agency despite the big difference in the buying price offered by private traders.

P27 and P32 variants

He said they would bring back the P27 and P32 per kilo rice variant, on which some 10 million Filipinos rely for their sustenance, in the market.

NFA buys clean and dry palay at a support price of P17 per kilo while private traders offer the same for P21 to P23 per kilo.

As of the third week of March, the farm-gate price of palay has reached P20.40 per kilo nationwide, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.