The Department of Agriculture said Wednesday that operations at 79 National Food Authority warehouses remained on hold amid the ongoing rice scam probe.

However, 20 warehouses in Region II (Cagayan Valley), Region VI (Western Visayas), and the National Capital Region will be opened after the Ombudsman lifted the preventive suspension of 24 NFA employees last week.

Despite the padlocked warehouses, DA spokesperson Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa said the NFA’s procurement of palay from farmers will continue, especially now that the harvest season has begun.

"'The secretary also ordered those [warehouses] still closed to be opened and to replace immediately the suspended warehouse personnel. The procurement during this harvest season is unhampered," De Mesa said, assuring that the closed warehouses would soon return to normal operations.

A total of 169 warehouses managed by the NFA are currently operating.

Unfair, unjust

Meanwhile, Atty. Dino de Leon, lawyer of suspended NFA employees, lamented that the suspension was unfair and unjust.

In a media forum Wednesday, De Leon asked why only lowly NFA employees were suspended and Assistant Administrator for Operations Lemuel Pagayunan was excluded.

He said the Ombudsman had acted in blitzkrieg mode, suspending over a hundred employees who are now severely affected and being projected as corrupt.

Paguyunan, he said, has all the control of the transactions involving millions of rice disposals.

He said his clients were given preventive suspension without even substantiating their involvement in the sale.

De Leon revealed the same Pagayon who was involved in disposing of 4,080,754 sacks of rice in 2022 and 5,588,635 sacks in 2021, 5,588, 635 sacks, yet he is not among those charged for selling them to a private establishment.