The Department of Agriculture (DA) has implemented the preventive suspension order of the Office of the Ombudsman against 139 officials and employees of the National Food Authority (NFA) who are allegedly involved in the “improper sale” of thousands of tons of NFA rice.
This was announced by Agriculture Secretary Francisco “Kiko” Tiu Laurel Jr. during a media briefing at the NFA central office in Quezon City on Monday, March 4.
Laurel said that he will concurrently head the NFA in the meantime to “avoid any delays in the services and projects of the agency.”
“Today, we are implementing the preventive suspension order of the Ombudsman against 139 officials and employees of the National Food Authority who are being investigated for alleged involvement in the controversial sale of rice buffer stocks,” Laurel said.
“I condemn this at hindi natin palalampasin ang ano mang uri ng korapsyon. Kaisa ako sa ating Ombudsman sa layunin nitong alamin ang katotohanan at parusahan ang dapat maparusahan ( I condemn this and we will not ignore any kind of corruption. I am with our Ombudsman in his goal of finding out the truth and punishing those who deserve to be punished,” he added.
According to the DA chief, suspended NFA officials include Administrator Roderico Bioco, Assistant Administrator for Operations John Robert Hermano, and several regional managers and their warehouse supervisors all over the Philippines.
“NFA Administrator Bioco had earlier filed leave of absence last Friday to allow investigators a free hand to undertake the probe which we expect will go beyond this controversy,” said Laurel.
He said the agriculture department seeks to dig deep as far as 2019, adding that they welcome all who want to come forward and aid them in cleansing the NFA.
Laurel said that he has been in contact with the Ombudsman since the controversy started.
“I also created a special panel of internal investigators to determine the culpability and see how we can prevent it from happening again in the future,” he went on.
To recall, an NFA official had accused several agency executives of improperly disposing of rice buffer stocks without bidding, and at prices that were allegedly disadvantageous to the government.
NFA executives, meanwhile, denied any impropriety, claiming the sale followed procedures.
In a statement, the NFA pointed out that it had the mandate “to keep and dispose of 99.9 percent stocks in good and consumable condition.”
“The rice we are selling are all sold at the mandated selling price of P25/kg, although aging stocks need to be re-milled before they could be released to the consumers,” it stated.
Upon learning about the issue, Laurel formed an investigative panel to probe into allegations that certain NFA officials permitted the sale of milled rice kept in the agency's warehouse for P25 per kilo without bidding and after purchasing the grains in palay form for P23 per kilo.
He said said that they also welcome any government agency that may choose to conduct their investigation to find out the facts.
On March 1, Sen. Cynthia Villar announced that the Senate will look into allegations that the NFA sold thousands of tons of rice to specific dealers at a price that was disadvantageous to the government.