Duterte eyes NFA takeover
Grains traders vow to flood market with local rice at 139 per kilo
President Duterte is planning to take over the supervision of the National Food Authority (NFA) amid government efforts to boost the country’s rice supply.
The President is also keen on designating Agriculture Undersecretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat to oversee the approval of the country’s rice importation needs, according to his spokesman Harry Roque.
The President’s latest decision was reached during a dialogue with the country’s rice traders in Malacañang last Thursday night amid reports of the low rice inventory of the NFA.
“The President expressed his intent to place the National Food Authority (NFA) under the Office of the President,” Roque said in a statement.
“The President is considering the approval of rice importation to be centralized under the Office of DA Undersecretary Bernadette Romulo Puyat, subject to the review of the Office of the Executive Secretary,” he added.
Roque also maintained that the NFA Council, headed by Cabinet Secretary LeoncioEvasco Jr., would not be abolished, contrary to earlier reports.
“It’s NFA that will be transferred to Office of the President with the NFA Council,” he said.
To abolish NFA Council – which is composed of representatives from the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), Department of Finance (DOF), BangkoSentralngPilipinas (BSP), and Landbank – Duterte must go to Congress and have Presidential Decree No. 1770 repealed.
Early in the day, Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol reported that the President has authorized the abolition of the NFA Council, which includes some of the country’s economic managers.
Piñol, in a radio interview, also claimed that the supervision of the NFA and other agriculture-related agencies would be transferred to the Department of Agriculture (DA).
Prior to the President’s decision, the NFA was among the government agencies involved in food security and anti-poverty efforts placed under the supervision of the Cabinet Secretary.
It was contained in Executive Order No. 1, titled “Reengineering the Office of the President Toward Greater Responsiveness to the Attainment of Development Goals,” signed by the President in June 2016.
The NFA, formerly known as National Grains Authority, is mandated to ensure national food security and stabilize supply and prices of rice and corn in the country.
Apart from the changes in the NFA, the President also seized the chance to remind rice traders against hoarding rice and imposing unjust price increase, according to Piñol.
“I know that you are all businessmen and that you have to make a profit but I am appealing to you not to overprice or hoard rice,” Piñol said in a Facebook post, quoting the President.
The rice traders, meantime, have reportedly promised to flood the market with local rice to be sold at P39 per kilo.
“Rice traders pledged to give at least 700,000 sacks of rice to replenish the NFA stocks sold at P38 per kilo to be sold at P39,”Roque said.
He said the President also sought the relief of some transport officials extorting from trucks plying areas in Nueva Vizcaya. (With a report from Madelaine B. Miraflor)