MANILA: The National Food Authority (NFA) on Thursday expressed hopes for more suspension lifting following the order of the Office of the Ombudsman to reinstate 72 warehouse supervisors.
“We are happy that our warehouse supervisors are back to work. Hopefully, all the other employees suspended will also have their suspension lifted soon,” NFA Administrator Larry Lacson said in a statement posted on Facebook.
“This means we have 72 more human power and this will greatly help our operation,” he added.
To date, there are still 45 NFA employees who are still suspended.
Before the lifting of the suspension of the 72 warehouse supervisors, 23 NFA personnel had been already cleared after the Ombudsman found “erroneous data” on the list provided by the Department of Agriculture (DA).
The list includes 141 NFA officials and employees who were preventively suspended including former NFA administrator Roderico Bioco and assistant administrator for operations John Robert Hermano.
Lacson has appealed to the Ombudsm
an, saying the six-month preventive suspension “affected or paralyzed” the operations of NFA warehouses amid its palay procurement for buffer stocking.
Meanwhile, NFA regional field offices reported “impressive” procurement volume through the help of a new price range scheme (PRICERs).
“The National Food Authority (NFA) Region III has achieved an impressive 100.43 percent of its target (454,000 bags) during the implementation of PRICERs from April 22 to May 12, with 455,955 bags of palay procured,” the NFA Central Luzon said in a separate statement.
The NFA Camarines Sur has also hit a 273-percent accomplishment for the first two weeks of May alone, surpassing its target for the month with 60,154 bags of palay.
More procurements are expected to come from other NFA warehouses in La Union, Bulacan, and Davao, among many others.
The NFA targets to procure 300,000 metric tons (MT) under PRICERs, with a higher price range set at PHP17 to PHP23 per kilogram for fresh or wet palay (from PHP16 to PHP19/kg); and
PHP23 to PHP30/kg for clean and dry palay (from PHP19 to PHP23/kg).
Source: Philippines News Agency
