PBBM bares review of NFA asset disposal procedure after rice sale

PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said there is now an ongoing review on the disposal procedures being implemented by the National Food Authority (NFA) following the agency’s allegedly anomalous sale of 75,000 bags of “deteriorating rice.”

He said the ongoing Ombudsman probe would also cover possible lapses by concerned officials and protocol gaps.

“It also is an examination of some of the procedures within the NFA that were undertaken without Board approval, without the proper discussion within the NFA [National Food Authority] and with the DA [Department of Agriculture] and with the rest of the Cabinet,” Marcos told reporters in an interview in Melbourne Wednesday.

The Ombudsman initiated its probe on the matter based on the lettercomplaint submitted by NFA Assistant Administrator for Operations Lemuel R. Pagayunan to the Office of the President last month.

Pagayunan claimed NFA Administrator Roderico R. Bioco and his administrators allegedly manifested partiality or gross negligence when they allowed the sale of aging rice to “preselected” traders for P93.75 million.

The Ombudsman decided to impose a six month preventive suspension to Bioco and 138 other NFA officials and employees.

DA Secretary Francisco T. Laurel Jr. said they are conducting their own comprehensive investigation into the matter, which, he said, would also cover transactions that date back to 2019.

Marcos said he supports the suspension of the concerned officials as a precautionary measure to ensure they will not be able to influence the ongoing probe.

“So, we have taken the safe measure of suspending all of those who have been shown to may have been involved in any of these wrongdoings, such as the anomalous sale but also the cavalier way in which the procedures that have been set out in the rules have been ignored,” Marcos said.