MANILA, Philippines - Bohol Rep. Arthur Yap sought yesterday to clarify reports of wastage and huge losses sustained by the National Food Authority (NFA) in the last 10 years.
Yap, as former chief of the NFA, said the losses could be attributed to the food shortage in 2008 which was followed by the global financial crisis in 2009.
He said it was during this period that the prices of rice in the international market skyrocketed, and there was a great need to make sure the grain remained affordable to ordinary Filipino families.
“If it was presented that way as losses of the government, it actually should be seen as subsidies or gains of the people. The public benefited from it.
“We’re talking about international trading (of rice) here, the prices are dictated by market forces and the government cannot pass on the cost of the rice directly to the consumers even if the rice prices are high. The government must maintain cheap rice prices or else the people will go hungry,” Yap said.
Yap made the statement following the report made by Commission on Audit (COA) in 2009 that the NFA incurred its biggest net loss in 2008 at P32.208 billion, and in 2009 at P26.421 billion.
“I think the COA called it losses simply because the NFA is a GOCC (government-owned and controlled corporation),” said Yap, who was agriculture chief during the Arroyo admi-nistration.
“Records will show that the previous administration was able to keep food prices in check. Food inflation was at the lowest in the last three years in so many decades,” he said.
Yap said it was the declared policy of the Arroyo administration to keep food prices stable by subsidizing rice prices.
Yap scored officials of the Aquino administration for making it appear that there was mismanagement in the NFA under the previous administration and making comparisons when there should be none.
He said the Arroyo administration made the bulk of the rice imports since not many in the private sector wanted to due to the high rice prices in the world market.
But now since rice prices appear to be stabilizing, more private rice importers can participate, he said.
“They’re trying to mislead the public in making it appear that we forcibly or deliberately did some schemes. We’re happy that the situation is that now more private (firms) can do the imports. But you cannot compare prices on such a traded commodity in different times because they change, the circumstances are different. You establish nothing when you compare,” he said.
House Senior Deputy Minority Leader and Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez said the NFA was is not created “to make money.”
“It (NFA) is an equalizer and it’s not supposed to make profits. I’m just wondering why they (Aquino administration) keep on putting the blame on the former president,” Suarez said.
“We were never put in the list of countries with food insecurity during that time (2008),” he added.
House Minority Leader Edcel Lagman (Albay) said if there were any government official or private individual involved in any possible anomaly at the NFA, then charges must be filed against them. – With Rhodina Villanueva