Deeper probe needed in NFA

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THE preventive suspension of National Food Authority (NFA) administrator Roderico Bioco and 138 other officials and employees involved in an alleged irregular sale of NFA rice to two traders is the right thing to do, in the wake of this latest scandal in the government’s principal grain office.

The six-month suspension order was issued by the Office of the Ombudsman against the officials so that they would not be able to influence the results of the investigation.

‘… the NFA rice sale scandal is the first real test for Tiu Laurel as agriculture secretary, in his avowed promise to rid the Department of Agriculture of corruption and other mismanagement practices.’

The suspension stemmed from the sale of 75,000 bags of rice, part of the country’s buffer stocks, for P93.75 million.

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Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said those suspended include NFA assistant administrator for operations John Robert Hermano, 12 regional managers, 26 branch managers and 99 warehouse supervisors all over the Philippines.

Before this latest NFA scandal was discovered, people in the know have been talking about the presence of a “mafia” in the NFA, hinting that corruption in that agency has been around for some time.

The current anomaly, described by Secretary Tiu Laurel as “illegal,” has opened a can of worms, as a farmers’ group — the Federation  of Free Farmers — has urged Laurel to include in the ongoing probe on the NFA’s questionable rice sale to some traders the alleged billions of pesos worth of fresh palay sold during previous administrations.

FFF national manager  Raul Montemayor said, “What happened during the previous administrations (of NFA) should also be probed as based on the reports we received, it was even worse. It was bigger, billions of pesos worth. The stocks were freshly purchased and sold to traders and made it appear (that the palay) were sold to traders three or four months after to make it appear these were deteriorating stocks.”

He added that the whistleblower, NFA Assistant Administrator for operations Lemuel Pagayunan, should also be questioned as he was assigned in marketing prior to the appointment of embattled NFA administrator Roderico Bioco. This new scandal was unearthed  following the quarrel between Bioco and Pagayunan about the operations inside the rice agency.

Montemayor said that in the previous years, “freshly purchased palay (from the farmers) were sold to private traders and under the scheme, the documents from the NFA were released three months or four months later.”

While Secretary Laurel has instructed Bioco and Pagayunan to both take a leave of absence, as acting administrator he should dig deep into the allegations of corruption and irregularity in the NFA.

“I condemn this (illegal sale) and we will not tolerate any form of corruption. I am one with the ombudsman in its aim to ferret out the truth and penalize those involved. I have been in contact with the Office of the Ombudsman ever since the controversy erupted. I also created a special panel of internal investigators to determine the culpability and see how we can prevent it from happening in the future,” Tiu Laurel said.

We note that the NFA rice sale scandal is the first real test for Tiu Laurel as agriculture secretary, in his avowed promise to rid the Department of Agriculture of corruption and other mismanagement practices.

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