The Department of Agriculture assured that they would take appropriate action once the reported irregularities within the National Food Authority rice sale were proven.

In a televised interview, a DA key official said that an investigation is currently ongoing regarding the alleged improper sale of rice by the National Food Authority, which was reported to have sold milled rice stored in the agency’s warehouse for P25 per kilo without public bidding and after acquiring the grains while still in palay form for P23 per kilo.

"Our Secretay [Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr.] has formed a panel to investigate these alleged anomalies. The review of the documents has already begun, and they also had interviews regarding these matters," said DA spokesperson Asec. Arnel de Mesa.

"Although no deadline has been set, we hope that the inquiry can be done quickly and that they can provide a review and report to our secretary," he added.

De Mesa assured that people who were found involved in the alleged corrupt scheme would be held accountable.

"Regardless of any investigation, if an irregularity is found, that will definitely be acted upon by our secretary, no matter who it is. All that is really needed is for the truth to come out.”

He went on by saying that the DA has also seen finger-pointing within the NFA.

"One more thing that can be seen is that there is some kind of allegation inside, and what our secretary wants is more than the truth," he said.

NFA’s mandate: buy high from farmers, sell low to the government

Rice watchdog Bantay Bigas said that this anomaly is rooted in Republic Act No. 11203, or the Rice Tarrificion Law, which they said removed the NFA mandate of selling subsidized rice.

"Instead of selling it at a low price to the millers, they should have sold it to the Filipino people because our consumers are really looking for cheap rice," Bantay Bigas spokesperson Cathy Estavillo told the DAILY TRIBUNE.

“On the other hand, under RA 11203, the NFA is prohibited from selling. The NFA is not allowed to sell in the market, so if we look at it, the root cause is, of course, RA 11203, or the Rice Liberalization Law that was passed in 2019, which removed the mandate of the NFA to sell subsidized rice,” she said. "That's the effect of a liberalized industry: you let the product set its price; the government is not allowed to interfere; that's what was done, so the NFA is just for buffer stocking."

Estavillo stressed that with the ongoing reports of alleged corruption of rice value along with continuous increases in rice price, the government must focus its attention on strengthening the local palay production.

“What our farmers and consumers call for is to increase our local production so that the NFA's trading function in rice is returned, and they will also buy a large volume of the farmer's rice and increase their budget,” she said.

Moreover, farmer’s group Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura likewise stressed that selling rice is not among the mandates of the NFA.

"As it is, what we really need to know is aging because the NFA itself claims that the stocks are not aging yet, which means they are not damaged. Also, what is their mandate? Can they sell outside DWSD [Department of Social Welfare and Development] or their buffer stocking is only for calamities? That's what needs an audit of what really happened,” Sinag executive director Jayson Cainglet told the DAILY TRIBUNE.

He added: "They will sell to the DSWD because that is the one that distributes during calamities. The NFA's mandate is to buy high from farmers and sell low to the government."

NFA ‘safety net’ for Pinoy farmers

The NFA said in a statement on Thursday that among its mandates is keeping and disposing of 99.9% of stocks that are in good and consumable condition.

“The rice we are selling are all sold at the mandated selling price P25/kg, although aging stocks need to be remilled before they could be released to the consumers,” they said, noting that freshly milled stocks are reserved for calamity relief, and leftovers shall be “disposed for inventory management purpose” as per NFA guidelines.

The NFA said that distress selling is the period after three months that would require the agency to remill, “which entails additional processing, logistics, and recovery of loss costs to make the stocks acceptable to consumers.”

“To avoid these costs, NFA can opt to sell at the highest mandated price to qualified commercial buyers on as-is where-is, no-selection, and first-in first-out bases (and first-come-first-serve basis, meaning the first buyer gets to buy the oldest stocks),” the statement read.

“In the future, when NFA has modernized, the distress selling could be avoided as the shelf life is longer and there is more time to allow the disposition of the stocks in best condition to the preferred purpose—calamity relief,” it added.

The NFA said that its council allows its management to dispose of aging stocks up to 10% lower than the mandated price and damaged stocks at least P6.50 per kilo.

“The current NFA management was able to responsibly dispose its rice stocks to government accounts by stretching to maximum shelf-life, minimizing the sale of residual volume to other accounts by implementing stricter guidelines and safeguards,” it concluded.