After President Aquino delivered some exposé on his first SONA, people are now talking about the alleged over importation of rice. It was said that the past administration have imported too much from what must have been needed which have caused a great surplus of rice hauled in NFA warehouses around the country. Figures covering millions of excess sacks are now circulating while past official are claiming that what has been imported is just right. And to make the situation worse, it is said that rice stored in some warehouses are starting to decay. I would just like to ask previous officials of NFA, if it is enough then why do we have this millions of sacks which as claimed by some reports have been their for six months? Now the question is who must be blamed?
As far as I know, the NFA is a Deregulated Agency under the Department of Agriculture whose primary aim is to ensure the food security of the Philippines and the stability of supply and price of the staple grain-rice. Since it is deregulated, NFA has it's own policy and decision-making body which is the one who is responsible for the supervision of all its transaction. But even with this status, NFA still needs the data and other valuable information regarding the status of the rice-grain supply of our country which is supplied by the Department of Agriculture. During the times of the rice shortage, the NFA administrator was Jessup Navarro while the secretary of the DA is Rep. Arthur Yap. The decision is in the hand of the NFA authorities but we cannot remove the fact that as a governing body, even if the agency is under deregulated status, DA still has something to say. I'll give you the responsibility in deciding who must be blamed. After all, what is important right now is that these sacks of rice must be disposed as soon as possible. My suggestion, give it to the poor citizens of our nation. They don't need to pay for it for the money that was used in purchasing these goods came from the taxes of the people!
