DA assures NFA’s full cooperation on rice scam probe
Grainy at the moment. While the National Food Authority officials work on sacking the rice sale scam, probe details of which remain undisclosed, workers keep the flow going, carrying sacks of rice for stacking at an NFA warehouse in Manila.
TED ALJIBE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
The Department of Agriculture on Friday assured that the National Food Authority will submit all the documents needed by the Office of the Ombudsman amid the ongoing investigation of the agency’s alleged rice sale to private traders.
In a televised interview, DA spokesperson Asec. Arnel de Mesa said that the newly appointed NFA officer in charge, Larry Lacson, has been ordered by Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. to immediately provide the Ombudsman with all the pertinent documents relevant to the probe.
“Kahapon, kausap ko mismo si administrator Lacson at nakausap niya na itong lawyer in charge ng Ombudsman dito sa ginagawang pagsisiyasat o imbestigasyon sa NFA, at nagkaroon na sila ng ugnayan, at nangako si administrator Lacson na lahat ng dokumento ay maibibigay agad at lahat ng taong kailangang ma-interview ay mai-interview at sinisigurado niya na walang itatagong dokumento ang NFA at makikipag-ugnayan nang husto sa opisina ng Ombudsman (Yesterday, I spoke with administrator Lacson himself, and he already spoke with the lawyer in charge of the Ombudsman here in the NFA investigation. They had already coordinated, and administrator Lacson promised that all documents would be provided immediately and all people who needed to be interviewed would be interviewed, he assured that the NFA would not hide any documents and would be in close contact with the Office of the Ombudsman),” said De Mesa.
On Thursday, Ombudsman Samuel Martires criticized the DA for not immediately appointing replacements for the suspended NFA warehouse personnel.
On the same day, the DA ordered the transfer of authority from suspended NFA warehousemen to their deputies to facilitate reopening its padlocked warehouses.
Around 99 NFA warehouses remained padlocked after the Ombudsman suspended 141 NFA personnel.
Agriculture chief Laurel, however, assured that the closed warehouses “will be opened soonest to optimize the impact of NFA’s procurement activities on rice farmers' income as well as secure the maximum volume of palay for buffer stocking.”
Last week, the preventive suspension of 24 NFA employees was lifted after the Ombudsman's investigators found errors in the data provided to his office by the DA, which he said was sourced from the NFA.