The suspension of 139 officials and employees of the National Food Authority (NFA), including its head, is a “safe measure” against possible malpractices within the agency, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said Wednesday.
Marcos made the statement, as he backed the Office of the Ombudsman’s decision to impose a six-month preventive suspension on NFA administrator Roderico Bioco, NFA assistant administrator for operations John Roberto Hermano, 12 regional managers, 27 branch managers, and 98 warehouse supervisors.
He said the situation in NFA does not only involve anomalous sale of rice but also some procedures in the agency that were undertaken without board approval and proper discussion.
Marcos said the transactions were made without the approval of the Department of Agriculture (DA) and “with the rest of the Cabinet.”
“So, we have taken the safe measure of suspending all of those who have been shown to may have been involved in any of these wrongdoings such as the anomalous sale but also the cavalier way in which the procedures that have been set out in the rules have been ignored,” Marcos said in a taped interview while in Melbourne, Australia.
The Ombudsman’s suspension order stemmed from the alleged “disadvantageous sale of rice buffer stocks.”
The preventive suspension without pay took effect on March 4.
DA Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. on Wednesday designated former Assistant Administrator for Finance and Administration Piolito Santos as the new officer-in-charge of the NFA.
The DA is conducting a parallel investigation with the Office of the Ombudsman following the alleged improper sale of rice buffer stock to select traders without bidding. Its investigating panel is set to look into the NFA’s transactions since 2019.
On Monday, Senator Imee Marcos filed Senate Resolution No. 940, seeking to investigate, in aid of legislation, the NFA’s alleged irregular disposition and sale of repacked rice stocks to rice traders at low prices.
The House Committee on Agriculture and Food is also set to investigate the alleged improper sale of rice buffer stocks on Thursday. (PNA)