Ombudsman lifts suspension of 72 NFA officials involved in illegal rice trade

The Ombudsman has lifted the six-month preventive suspension against 72 of the initial 139 National Food Authority (NFA) officials involved in the alleged anomalous sale of 75,000 rice bags to private traders.

In an order released on Tuesday, Ombudsman Samuel Martires said the suspension imposed against the 72 NFA warehouse supervisors is no longer necessary taking into account, that the documentary evidence pertaining to the case were already obtained by his office.

"There is insufficient ground to believe that their continued stay in office may prejudice the investigation of the case filed against them," the order reads.

"Thus, the continued preventive suspension of the aforenamed warehouse supervisors is no longer necessary."

The 72 warehouse supervisors govern Central Luzon, CALABARZON, MIMAROPA, Western Visayas, Central Visayas, Zamboanga Peninsula, Northern Mindanao, Soccskargen, Caraga, and the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

They were among those 139 NFA officials, including its administrator, Roderico Bioco, slapped with a six-month preventive suspension earlier in March over the improper sale of 75,000 bags of "aging" and "deteriorating" rice buffer stock to private rice traders.

The Ombudsman flagged the transaction after it found that the supplies, which were allegedly re-bagged by commercial traders and sold the same at a higher price, were found to be still fit for human consumption.

Bioco earlier said that the sale of rice was necessary to spur the NFA's operational funds.

In mid-March, the Ombudsman also lifted the suspension order against 23 NFA warehouse supervisors, including those in the National Capital Region (NCR), after graft probers found a blunder on the list submitted to the Department of Agriculture (DA) based on the NFA's data.