MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Cynthia Villar has called for the passage of the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Law to prevent middlemen and traders from taking advantage of rice farmers and consumers.
The National Food Authority (NFA) has not proven itself to be taking care of the welfare of farmers and consumers, she said, despite Senate Bill 2432 or the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act having been passed in December 2023 and certified as urgent by President Marcos.
She said the NFA plays a vital role in ensuring food security and stability in the country by managing the supply and distribution of rice. It should focus on the acquisition, maintenance and distribution of rice for buffer stocking sourced from local farmers and for calamity assistance, she said.
The NFA has a yearly budget of P9 billion for local procurement.
“We should urgently pass the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Law to control the middlemen and traders from causing hardship to the farmers and the consumers,” Villar said.
On March 20, 2024, the representatives of both houses of Congress went to a pre-bicam conference for the bill. The Senate version lays out severe sanctions on acts of smuggling, hoarding, profiteering and cartel of agricultural and fishery products as a self-preservation measure against the manipulative scheme of economic saboteurs, protect the livelihood of farmers and plug leakages in tax and duty collection.
Villar said the bill likewise protects the state from tax evaders and non-payors of duties, and ensures the well-being of agricultural producers and welfare of the consumers and the economy as a whole.
“I remember I together with other senators were buying rice from the NFA to give to calamity victims in Mindanao and we were told that they had no stock, only to find out that they sold the rice stocks to traders,” she added.
Recently, there was a report on the irregular sale of NFA stocks to selected commercial traders, namely G4 Rice Mill Corp. and NBK San Pedro Rice Mill. The grains were sold purportedly as deteriorating or aging stocks, and without undergoing a bidding process after being purchased in palay form at P23 per kilo and sold as milled rice for P25 per kilo. The government was said to have incurred a P12,500,000 loss because of this.
On March 4, 139 NFA officials were suspended based on an order issued by the Office of the Ombudsman.
There were several Senate resolutions filed in this regard, including ones by Senators JV Ejercito and Imee Marcos, with the bills languishing in the Blue Ribbon committee.