The charges stemmed from the alleged illegal sale of 75,000 bags of rice, part of the country’s buffer stock, to two traders for a total of P93.75 million.

MANILA, Philippines — Ombudsman Samuel Martires on Thursday went to the National Food Authority main office in Quezon City to personally serve a subpoena that would compel the agency to submit several documents in connection with the alleged anomalous sale of P93.75 million worth of NFA rice to two traders.

“I personally went to the NFA to obtain the data that we need in our investigation, such as the list of warehouses of milled rice or bigas. Because we cannot guess where these sacks of rice were stored, where they were delivered or where this rice delivered to traders were sourced from,” Martires said over dzBB.

Martires said the requested documents will be crucial to his office’s ongoing investigation of NFA Administrator Roderico Bioco and 138 other NFA officials and employees facing administrative charges of grave misconduct, gross neglect of duty and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.

The charges stemmed from the alleged illegal sale of 75,000 bags of rice, part of the country’s buffer stock, to two traders for a total of P93.75 million.

The ombudsman had earlier ordered the six-month preventive suspension without pay of Bioco and the 138 other NFA officials and employees as it found “strong evidence showing their guilt” of the administrative charges.

At a press conference on Monday, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said Bioco and the other officials and employees were already placed under preventive suspension in compliance with the ombudsman’s order.

Laurel said those suspended include NFA assistant administrator for operations John Robert Hermano, 12 regional managers, 26 branch managers and 99 warehouse supervisors all over the country.

During the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon briefing, Agriculture Assistant Secretary and spokesman Arnel de Mesa said that Laurel already directed NFA officer-in-charge Piolito Santos to prepare all the documents needed by the ombudsman.

“Our Internal Audit Service and the independent investigating panel (will assist) so that all the necessary papers will be made available, as well as all the people involved,” De Mesa said.

On Wednesday, the NFA Council appointed Santos, the concurrent NFA assistant administrator for finance and administration, as OIC of the agency.

At the same time, De Mesa said that Laurel also tasked Santos to ensure the resumption in the operation of NFA warehouses after the storage facilities were padlocked.

In a separate text message to The STAR, Santos said the NFA main office already complied with the subpoena of the ombudsman and directed field offices to submit the required documents.

“We provided the documents and additional papers will come from the (NFA) branches. We advised field offices to submit today,” Santos told The STAR.

According to De Mesa, the Department of Agriculture will also tap officials of the Commission on Audit as witnesses in the ongoing investigation.

“We need to make sure that the current stocks are intact and there will be proper accounting of new deliveries,” De Mesa added.

Santos said that among his priorities is to ensure the resumption of operations of NFA warehouses.

Martires, meanwhile, said that while some of the NFA rice buffer stocks may still be in the warehouses, this does not automatically mean that they were not illegally sold.

“There may be warehouses that have yet to release the rice, or maybe the traders or buyers have yet to haul the sold items, though, these were already paid,” he said. “We will find out about all of this in our investigation.”

House probe

Speaking at a hearing of the House committee on agriculture and food last Thursday, NFA assistant administrator for operations Lemuel Pagayunan reaffirmed his allegation that the rice stocks sold were not deteriorating but were treated and fit for human consumption. 

He said the disposition of the rice stocks did not undergo public bidding and was not approved by the NFA Council, the agency’s governing board.

“There was no bidding, the quality of rice was good, the rebagging and the resellling price (of the rice) was not appropriate,” he told the panel.

The motu proprio inquiry was called based on House Resolution 1611, filed by panel chair and Quezon Rep. Wilfrido Mark Enverga, citing a report of Pagayunan about Bioco’s “improper” sale of some 75,000 bags to “selected rice traders who bought the said stocks at a price much lower than the prevailing price… and sold the same at very much higher prices.”

Enverga moved for the amendment of his resolution, as it turned out that the bags sold were actually 130,000.

The bill stated that NFA is authorized to dispose of rice stocks before the quality of the stocks deteriorates and becomes unacceptable and unsafe. — Bella Cariaso, Sheila Crisostomo, Jasper Emmanuel Arcalas

Published Date: March 8, 2024