Senator Sherwin Gatchalian is pushing for the abolition of the National Food Authority to spare taxpayers from the burden of subsidizing the “inefficient and unproductive” agency following the rice crisis in Zamboanga City with grain prices soaring to as much as P70 per kilo.
Senators Benigno Aquino IV and Francis Pangilinan likewise appealed to President Rodrigo Duterte to fire all NFA officials, led by administrator Jason Aquino, for their failure to do their job and fulfill its 15-day buffer stock policy for almost one year now.
Pangilinan said the rice crisis in Zamboanga City is a combination of both corruption and incompetence by NFA officials in cahoots with wealthy private players and cartels in the rice industry who have been raking in profits.
For her part, Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco-Salazar said the rice situation in Zamboanga City, which has been placed under a state of calamity Wednesday, has eased with the arrival of shipments of commercial rice from India and Isabela province.
“Our situation, despite the declaration of a state of calamity, is slowly easing with the arrival of these commercial rice,” she said.
Gatchalian said the NFA has become “a liability to the government” with its shrinking revenue and ballooning losses.
“Taxpayers continue to shoulder the losses that NFA incurs despite its consistent failure to fulfill its mandate to stabilize the market price of rice so that every Filipino family will be able to put enough
rice on their plates. It’s time to abolish this unproductive agency and put taxpayers’ money to better use,” he said.
The Commission on Audit earlier flagged the decision of the NFA in using some P5.1-billion subsidy from the national government as payment for maturing loans instead of allocating the funds for the food security program of the agency.
Government auditors said the amount was supposed to ensure there was sufficient food supply in the country.
“The procurement shortfall affected other programs of NFA, such as rice distribution and buffer stocking resulting in a higher price of rice, unavailability of NFA rice in the market and a lower inventory of rice in various NFA warehouses,” CoA said.