State-run National Food Authority said it set up a separate account for procurement subsidy dedicated to palay buying from local farmers to dispel reports of alleged subsidy diversion.
NFA administrator Judy Carol Dansal said the issue was resolved in 2018 after a Commission on Audit report claiming that the 2018 subsidy was diverted to other purposes.
The agency said it had a hard time accomplishing its procurement targets for 2018 because farm-gate prices surged to very high levels, reaching as much as P25 per kilogram in many areas against the buying price of P17 per kilo of clean and dry palay.
The NFA said a part of its procurement subsidy in 2018, lumped under the agency’s corporate funds, was used to pay for the agency’s maturing loans early in the year. It said the full amount of P7 billion was eventually spent for the year’s food security buffer stock”•both from local procurement and rice importation that arrived starting June 2018.