Warehouse supervisor tagged in missing NFA rice in hiding

BUTUAN CITY, Philippines – The supervisor of a National Food Authority (NFA) warehouse in Bayugan City, Agusan del Sur has stopped reporting for work after 1,890 sacks of rice (not 1,600 as earlier reported) “disappeared.”

Senior Inspector Dick Cale, Agusan del Sur police director, earlier told journalists that warehouse supervisor Melvin Pacaña allegedly confided to him that he was responsible for the missing sacks of rice, estimated to be worth P2.4 million.

NFA-Caraga director Pepito Paqueo said Pacaña also admitted taking out the bags of rice without authorization, to NFA-Region 13 investigation service officer Rolando Sindo.

Paqueo earlier reported to NFA administrator Arthur Juan that 1,600 sacks of rice were missing, but an inventory last Thursday showed 1,890 bags actually disappeared and reportedly re-bagged into commercial rice.

NFA provincial manager Gil Tabor told The STAR that Pacaña stopped going to the office last July 22. Three days earlier, a joint team from the NFA and Criminal Investigation and Detection Group found 42 empty, brand-new sacks of commercial rice on Pacaña’s service vehicle, a Wrangler-type jeepney.

Paqueo said Pacaña was assigned as warehouse supervisor only last year.

Meanwhile, security guards of the NFA warehouse recorded the license plates of two cargo trucks last June 29, one of which left for Davao City with 500 sacks of rice.

A check with the Land Transportation Office showed that a Davao City-based trucking firm owns the two trucks.

The security guards’ logbook though failed to record what happened to the second truck.