Wait-and-see

Not just once but twice when the country’s state-subsidized rice supply for low-income Filipinos was sacrificed just to pay for so-called “legacy debts” of the National Food Authority (NFA). This was discovered in the course of the public hearing of the House appropriations committee conducted by Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles on the proposed 2019 budget of the NFA.

Nograles elicited such admissions from no less then NFA administrator Jason Aquino that the budget earmarked by the 17th Congress for the government’s “buffer stocking program” for 2017 and 2018 were instead used by the agency to retire its debts with state-owned banks.

It might have been the last straw so to speak when President Rodrigo Duterte announced last Sept.11 about the supposed request of Aquino to be “relieved” from his post. President Duterte subsequently appointed retired Army chief Lt. Gen. Rolando Bautista to replace Aquino last Sept.16.

The ex-NFA administrator admitted before the House budget hearing last Sept. 4 they paid P6.1 billion out of the P7-billion budget of the state agency for the purchase of palay (unhusked rice) from farmers to service this year its debts to the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) and Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP) without prior approval from higher authorities.

At the House budget hearing, Aquino also confirmed the Aug. 8 website report of the Commission on Audit (COA) that called out the attention of NFA for having used in 2017 to pay off P2.5 billion of NFA debts to the two state-owned banks using the P5-billion budget for its palay procurement program.

Aquino, a former Army colonel was taken to task by lawmakers over his questionable decisions following the release of the COA report. But, as it turned out, Aquino did it again this year.

While the NFA has already pre-ordered imported rice for its re-stocking supply, Nograles conceded the recent destructive typhoons that crossed our country one after the other may affect our farmers’ rice production this year. The ensuing natural disaster from these typhoons also caused deadly landslides that struck mining sites where it killed many poor Filipinos involved in illegal mining activities.

Government estimates that more than 60 percent of the gold mined in the Philippines are from unregulated small mining operations. Apart from endangering the lives of poor mining workers and destroying the environment, these illegal mining operators do not pay taxes and, worse, employ child laborers to such dangerous jobs of gold-panning.

Dozens of these small-scale miners in Ucab, Itogon, Benguet were buried alive in the landslides at the height of super typhoon “Ompong.” They were earlier warned to vacate the area as it had been identified by the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) as a geohazard zone prone to landslides.

Since they operate illegal and unsupervised mining activities, they do not employ the same stringent safety practices required of legitimate large-scale mining operators like Benguet Corp. and Philex Mining Corp. which, to their credit, deployed their rescue teams to help government authorities in the search, rescue and retrieval operations in Ucab and other landslide affected areas.

Combined with typhoon-damaged agriculture, our country’s rice supply is facing much more challenges from a man-made disaster caused by the ex-NFA chief.

Obviously, we Filipinos had to pay for Aquino’s misplaced priorities that sparked the resulting shortage of lower priced NFA rice.

I don’t think the ex-Colonel is related to former president Benigno Simeon “P-Noy” Aquino III whose administration Aquino partly blamed for the so-called “legacy” debts of the NFA the agency inherited from administrations past.

Aquino confessed the NFA did not seek permission from the NFA Council – which is the policy-making body on top of the NFA – when these state funds were obviously diverted for other use not intended by Congress when they approved the 2017 and 2018 budget laws.

“That’s practically technical malversation,” said the 42-year-old lawmaker who is a lawyer by profession. Unfortunately, Nograles, like his uncle President Duterte, says he has not taken any legal action against the errant NFA chief, citing his being a lawyer is always guided to act only based on solid evidence.  

Aquino argued at the House hearing that the NFA had long been pressing to raise the prevailing average farm gate price of P17 per kilogram to buy palay from farmers. Palay, he explained, would cost double since the NFA still had to process it before the refined grain could be made available for distribution and consumption.

“So what we do is to advance the payment (sourced from the loans) and then pay for the loans when the subsidy is released. In fact, the subsidy for 2018 is too small as we spent about P6 billion for the importation of 250,000 metric tons of rice,” Aquino explained.

Nograles noted with acquiesce Aquino’s rationale of paying the debts to LBP and DBP to enable the agency get funds to import the rice. In our weekly Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum, Nograles echoed the call of the ex-NFA chief for Congress to provide budget support to increase the farm gate price of palay to at least P20 or P22 per kilo.

However, since the proposed 2019 budget is already in far advanced stage of plenary debate, Nograles said, the budget support to raise “palay” farm gate prices could come through proceeds from the House-approved Rice Tariffication bill. The Senate has yet to approve its counterpart bill. 

Also Nograles concurred with the decision of President Duterte to include the Secretary of the Department of Agriculture as part of the NFA Council. Ironically, it was a departure from the previous declaration of the President asking the 17th Congress to abolish the NFA Council.

The NFA Council is composed of 11 state agencies but in which the DA was not included, a fact bewailed by incumbent Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol. Will the entry of Piñol into the picture at the NFA Council be the solution to the problem? We can only wait-and-see.