SENATOR Raffy Tulfo has slammed the alleged massive corruption at the National Food Authority (NFA) involving the sale of government procured rice at a much lower price by declaring the cereal “unfit for human consumption.”
The selling of rice, Tulfo pointed out, betrayed the NFA mandate to guarantee rice sustainability and sufficiency especially for the poor.
He stressed that the NFA was supposed to procure “palay” locally and maintain the optimal level of buffer stock at all times in strategically located warehouses across the country.
Tulfo also said the NFA was tasked to efficiently and effectively carry out the acquisition, and maintain quality and efficient disposition of the buffer stock during emergencies and calamities.
But Tulfo lamented that the NFA rice was wasted due to corruption.
“Those who were tasked to take care of the ‘kaban ng bigas’ (cavan of rice) were the same people who sneaked out and robbed NFA rice and sold it to traders to make money,” he noted.
The senator said that what was happening in the NFA was wasting rice intended to feed the needy Filipinos.
Tulfo quoted Jayson Cainglet, executive director of the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) who said corruption in the NFA has been an open secret, but still those from the agricultural sector were surprised that the current NFA officials were so passionate in in their illegal activities.
“Before there was bidding and auction, but now, none.”
Citing results of his own investigation, Tulfo related that the following names cropped up as among those linked to the illegal sale of NFA rice: Alwin Uy, Charles Alingod, Max Torda and a certain Navarro, and NFA administrator Roderico Bioco as their leaders.
Last week, the Ombudsman suspended 141 NFA officials, including the officer-in-charge appointed by the Department of Agriculture to take over from Bioco.
The suspension stemmed from the sale of 150,000 bags of NFA rice to traders as authorized by Bioco and acting special assistant administrator John Robert Hermano.
The sale was allegedly without the approval of the NFA Council.
Tulfo also said the scheme involved purchase of the palay at P24 a kilo with P2 subsidy from the local government unit as part of the government’s Palay Marketing Assistance Program for Legislators and Local Government Units.
The palay would be milled and Bioco’s office would then look for stocks to sell to private millers.
Uy and Alingod would be ordered to identify stocks and instruct the quality assurance officer to issue a laboratory analysis report declaring that stocks were already in bad condition.
Once they got the report, Bioco and a certain Navarro will ask Alingod and Uy to negotiate for the sale of the rice to private millers and they will also collect the padded price on behalf of Bioco and Navarro.