Palace awaits recommendation on NFA revamp

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang is awaiting the recommendation of presidential assistant for food security and agricultural modernization Francis Pangilinan and the National Food Authority on whether to revamp the NFA amid reports of collusion among traders, cooperatives and NFA officials.

Pangilinan had said the alleged collusion is under investigation following the discovery of 1,200 sacks of NFA rice being switched to sacks of premium commercial rice at a rice mill in Marilao, Bulacan on Thursday.

In a press briefing yesterday, Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said the investigation is ongoing, even as he assured the public that hoarders, profiteers and price manipulators would be punished.

Coloma said Pangilinan also reported that the director of NFA-Region 3 was asked to explain how NFA rice ended up in the hands of commercial traders.

NFA administrator Arthur Juan said Elvira Obana and Serafin Manalili, NFA managers in Pampanga and Bulacan, respectively, had been summoned to the NFA main office to explain rice diversion activities discovered in Marilao.

“If there is probable cause, we will investigate them and they will be placed under preventive suspension,” he said.

Sources said rice diversion in Central Luzon, with unscrupulous businessmen buying rice from the NFA at a low price, is rampant.

Coloma assured the public the government is determined to go after hoarders, citing the filing of cases against three rice traders before the Malolos Prosecutor’s Office with about 4,000 metric tons of rice impounded following an inspection of several warehouses.

“We expect the combined effects of these raids plus the continuous infusion of NFA rice allocation would stabilize the price of rice,” he said.

He said rice traders in the Caloocan-Malabon-Navotas-Valenzuela area have agreed on a voluntary price rollback.

The price of rice in other parts of Metro Manila has also gone down, according to Juan.

“Prices remain high in some areas, but there are those that have reduced price at P1 to P2 per kilo,” he said following Monday’s raid at Purefeeds Corp.’s warehouse in Barangay Tikay in Malolos, Bulacan.

He said they have so far inspected 14 warehouses and only four have been found violating the law. – With Marvin Sy, Dino Balabo