Over 800 NFA employees to lose jobs

MANILA, Philippines — At least 839 employees of the National Food Authority will be retrenched as the NFA continues to undergo restructuring amid the rice tariffication law.

Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol, who chairs the inter-agency NFA Council, said they have approved the restructuring plan in line with the implementation of the Rice Trade Liberalization Act that limited the NFA functions to buffer stocking.

“The rice tariffication law removed the regulatory powers of the NFA, thus the need to retrench employees. There was clustering of provincial offices,” Piñol said in a press briefing on Tuesday.

“In most cases, there would only be one manager in three provinces. There was even a suggestion from NEDA (National Economic and Development Authority) to further trim down the number of regional offices,” he added.

The rice tariffication law is meant to reduce the market price of rice by easing import restrictions on the staple.

Piñol said all workers directly involved in industry regulations, licensing and monitoring of wholesalers, millers and retailers would be removed as the distribution power of the grains agency is stripped.

The NFA will no longer need that much manpower as it will only be limited to buffer stocking for emergencies and calamities, he explained.

The compensation package of the employees will be up to the Governance Commission for GOCCs, according to Piñol.

He said the NFA would conduct marketing operations as it continues to release subsidized rice to the market at P27 per kilo.

“We will not operate in areas where there is a surplus of rice stocks. Our focus is Metro Manila and net importing provinces,” Piñol said.a