House Appropriations Committee Chairperson Karlo “Ang Probinsyano” Nograles on Thursday welcomed the decision of the National Food Authority (NFA) Council’s decision to approve the importation of 132,000 MT of rice to stabilize rice prices, but lamented that action could have been taken sooner to prevent the rice prices from getting out of hand.
“As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The NFA Council and management should have been more proactive. They should have foreseen the problem when they saw how depleted the NFA’s rice stocks were,” said the legislator from Davao.
“The information is there on the NFA website; even if they don’t meet regularly, they can monitor the stocks with their smartphones.”
According to Nograles, NFA’s rice stocks from the beginning of the year until June showed a disturbing trend “that should have prompted immediate action.”
The NFA Rice Stock Inventory records in its website shows that in January 2018 the NFA had 107,200 MT or rice stocks, a number which dropped to 60,300 MT in February, to 43,500 MT in March, to 12,200 MT in April, to 3,900 MT in May, and finally, to 2,100 MT in June.
“They should have foreseen the problem when they saw how depleted the NFA’s rice stocks were.”
All these figures, are way below the 15-day buffer stock––equivalent to 400,000 MT––that the NFA is mandated to maintain during non-lean months.
“Pagpasok ng lean months, which are from June to September, dalawang libo na lang ang stock nila. Ano ginawa nila? This is one of the questions we will be asking the NFA when they face the Appropriations Committee on Monday,” the solon from Mindanao said.
Nograles had earlier announced that the NFA would be recalled to the House to explain why it diverted billions of pesos from the agency’s Buffer Stocking Program (BSP), to pay the principal and interest of its loans from the Land Bank of the Philippines and the Development Bank of the Philippines.
The BSP fund was specifically allotted for the NFA by Congress to purchase buffer stocks to ensure that there will be no shortage in rice supplies even during lean months.
“The information is there on the NFA website; even if they don’t meet regularly, they can monitor the stocks with their smartphones.”
Nograles emphasized that the purpose of the invitation to the NFA was not just to exact accountability from its officials “but to better understand how we got into this situation.”
“The main objective here is to spare our kababayans––our fellow probinsyanos––from rice crises in the future. Binibigyan naman ng pondo ang ahensya, so bakit hindi nila magampanan ang tungkulin nila? This is what we want to know, this is what we will find out on Monday.”
