Clarifying issues affecting NFA

September 29, 2010

Sir:

We write to set the record straight concerning certain issues that affected the image of the National Food Authority as a whole including its officials and employees.

We will not condemn nor exculpate anyone in our ranks because we know that this could only be done after an investigation coupled with a healthy regard for due process. Instead, we are presenting below the issues and the facts:

1. Rotten NFA Rice

There is no rotten NFA rice. The reportedly rotting NFA rice refers to the 47,339 bags of rice damaged by typhoon Ondoy, which were sold through public bidding. At the time this issue was published and aired over various media outlets, the winning bidders have not yet withdrawn the said rice stocks at the NFA Metropolitan Food Complex (MFC) warehouse. These facts are easily verifiable from existing records at the NFA Regional Office of the National Capital Region.

2. Over Importation of NFA Rice

On the allegations of over importation of rice in 2004, 2006 and 2008, the government should not investigate or system audit only the NFA but all agencies and officials who decided on recommending rice importation during a particular year. At first glance, it would appear that the NFA is guilty of this. The fact is – the decision as to when and how much to import is determined by the Inter-Agency Committee (IAC) on Rice and Corn composed of nine (9) government agencies, which is headed by an Assistant Secretary of the Department of Agriculture. The members of the NFA Council headed by the DA Secretary, should also be investigated. Like DOF Secretary Purisima should also be investigated since he served as a member of the NFA Council from 2001 to 2005.

It should be noted that the NFA is only one of the members that compose the IAC and therefore it cannot dictate or impose its will on the other members. Let’s dig deeper. Let the government investigate or system audit the whole DA structure so we would surely know why it miserably failed continuously to attain 100% Rice Self-Sufficiency for the past twenty (20) years spending more than P500-B in rice production and never succeeded to reduce rice production shortfall.

3.Zero subsidy, decoupling or abolition of the NFA

There should be a dispassionate and more objected examination of the issues concerning the NFA’s existence. It should be recalled that on November 18, 2008, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) approved the NFA’s Rationalization Plan which put in place a leaner but at least still efficient NFA. This rationalization plan was in turn based on the recommendation of the Department of Finance headed by then Secretary Cesar Purisima, which essentially preserved the existence of the NFA save for certain adjustments in its trading policy. Now comes the same Secretary Purisima advocating for zero subsidy for the NFA, which would effectively castrate its operations thereby rendering it inutile.

This flip-flopping position betrays a lack of serious recognition of the importance of the NFA in the life of the nation. Toying with food security is not healthy. We dread to think of the chaos that could descend upon us if we clumsily tinker with the effectively proven strategy in dealing with the food security of our people. The rice crises of 1995 and 2008 had taught us that food security should never be entirely entrusted in the hands of the private sector. In the 1995 rice crisis, the government had near empty warehouse that it was then helpless to effectively intervene, prompting the prices of regular commercial rice helpless to effectively intervene, prompting the price of regular commercial rice to shoot up in a matter of days, from P15/kilo to the range of P30 to P40/kilo. This was already corrected that is why our warehouse have now sufficient buffer stock. In the 2008 rice crisis, the NFA efficiently fielded rolling stores nationwide, where people queued all day to have a few kilos of affordable NFA rice. Hindsight is not a good substitute for foresight when it comes to food supply and price stability.

This is not to say that we condone shenanigans. The National Food Authority Employees Association has always been relentless in its campaign for a clean, transparent and efficient NFA.But to impute inimical acts or omissions against the entire organization is unfair to the majority of the good men and women in the agency who are professional and dedicated public servants.

Annie D. De La Cerna, DPA

Regional President

National Food Authority

Employees Association Reg. 7