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'Hokus-pokus!': Tulfo says NFA, COA 'in cahoots' to sell buffer rice stocks to private firms
'Hokus-pokus!': Tulfo says NFA, COA 'in cahoots' to sell buffer rice stocks to private firms
At A Glance
- House Deputy Majority Leader ACT-CIS Party-list Rep. Erwin Tulfo has accused the National Food Authority (NFA) and the Commission on Audit (COA) of being "in cahoots" with each other on the issue of alleged improper disposition of the country's buffer rice stocks.
ACT-CIS Party-list Rep. Erwin Tulfo (Facebook)
House Deputy Majority Leader ACT-CIS Party-list Rep. Erwin Tulfo has accused the National Food Authority (NFA) and the Commission on Audit (COA) of being "in cahoots" with each other on the issue of alleged improper disposition of the country’s buffer rice stocks.
An enraged Tulfo brought this up during the House Committee on Agriculture and Food's motu proprio investigation on the matter Thursday, March 7, wherein the solons grilled NFA Administrator Roderico Bioco on the sale of 75,000 sacks of these rice stocks to private traders for the relatively low price of P93.75 million.
“Bakit hindi sa gobyerno ibinenta bakit sa private corporation? Susmaryosep, November, December, ikot ng ikot ang House leadership naghahanap ng murang bigas. Ang tao nagugutom, napakamahal ng bigas sa mga oras na yun ang presyo ng bigas umaabot sa P70 (per kilo), meron pala kayong bigas na ganun. Bakit hindi nyo na lang sinabihan ang gobyerno na meron kayong bigas?” Tulfo told Bioco.
(Why did you sell this to private corporations and not to the government instead? My goodness. The House leadership was looking hard for cheap rice back in November, December. People are hungry, rice prices were elevated at that time, reaching P70 per kilo, and it turned out you had rice like that. Why didn't you inform the government about the rice?)
“Sa tingin ko may plano talaga na i-hokus-pokus ito, i-mekus-mekus itong mga stock na ito para maibenta sa mga private corporations,” the solon said.
(I think the plan was to really do some hocus-pocus, to manipulate these stocks and sell them to private corporations.)
The sacks of rice--"aging stocks", according to Bioco--were sold at P25 per kilo to at least nine private firms.
The deputy majority leader for communications also assailed the COA, particularly the resident auditors of NFA for "not doing their job" and not closely monitoring the transactions in the agency.
"Bakit hindi niyo alam ang nangyayari, bakit hindi niyo alam ito? (Why didnt you know what was going on?) It looks like you’re not doing your job,” Tulfo told Radito Ching, the COA representative to the panel probe.
“Baka po kayo ay tulog lang o baka po kayo ay nakapikit lang at nakapiring ang mata (Maybe you were sleeping or your eyes were either closed or blindfolded),” he added, noting that the two agencies could be "in cahoots".
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Ching, reasoned out that they failed to monitor the warehouses as it was located in the regional offices of NFA and it was under the regional auditors.
Tulfo further berated NFA for not giving the rice stocks to others government agencies such as Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Bureau of Corrections and Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP), where rice are mostly needed.
Earlier, the Office of the Ombudsman placed under preventive suspension for six months Bioco and 138 other NFA officials and employees amid the investigation into the alleged anomalous sale of the government’s rice buffer stocks.
The cases against them included grave misconduct, gross neglect of duty, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.