Time to probe NFA chief, says Sen. Bam

Senator Paolo “Bam” Aquino IV on Friday called on the government to investigate the National Food Authority (NFA) administration over allegations of corruption hounding his leadership.

Aquino lamented that instead of probing the NFA chief over the allegations that have been hurled against him, the government instead entrusted him with the task of importing thousands of metric tons of rice.

“Dahil sa kanyang kapalpakan, tumaas ang presyo ng bigas at nadagdagan ang pasan ng pamilyang Pilipino (Because of his inefficiency, the price of rice shot up and became an added burden to Filipino families),” Aquino said.

“What happened to the allegations hurled against the NFA leadership? Now that there are rice to be imported in, the same issues may just repeat again and the rice buffer stocks will just be lost in the hands of traders,” added the opposition senator, speaking in Filipino.

Aquino is just one of the many senators who called for the resignation of the NFA administrator.

During a Senate hearing on the rice issue, the NFA head admitted that the agency failed to comply with required 15-day buffer stock since last year.

The senators blamed his failure to ensure the buffer stock as the reason why it drove the prices of commercial rice up, burdening poor Filipino families further.