MANILA – Abolishing the National Food Authority will “spare taxpayers from the burden of subsidizing the inefficient and unproductive operations of the embattled agency,” said Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian.
Gatchalian sharply criticized the NFA for alleged financial mismanagement that he said was adversely affecting rice consumers.
With the year-over-year decline in its revenues, the agency has become “a liability to the government,” the senator stressed.
The NFA is not living up to its responsibilities, said the chairman of the Senate committee on economic affairs.
“lsa sa mga problemang nakikita ko kaya kulang ang supply at mataas ang presyo ng bigas ay iyong operations ng NFA,” he said.
The NFA’s revenue fell 38 percent to P17.93 billion in 2017 from P29.3 billion in 2016, Gatchalian said, citing “financial data.” The agency also posted a loss of P150 billion, he added.
Bureau of Treasury records showed that the NFA was the biggest recipient of subsidies provided to government-owned and -controlled corporations in June, with P5.2 billion of the total P9.72-billion GOCC subsidy released for its food security program.
Recently the Commission on Audit called the NFA out for using GOCC subsidy funds to settle outstanding debts, stressing that the funds were intended “specifically to stabilize the price and supply of rice and corn.”
“Taxpayers continue to shoulder the losses [of the NFA] despite its consistent failure to fulfill its mandate to stabilize the market price of rice,” said Gatchalian. “It’s time to abolish this unproductive agency and put taxpayers’ money to better use.”
Meanwhile Sen. Paolo Benigno Aquino IV again called on administrator Jason Aquino and other NFA officials to resign.
“Mahiya naman sila sa taumbayan,” Aquino said. “Dahil sa kanilang kapalpakan, nalulunod ang mga pamilyang Pilipino sa taas ng presyo ng bigas.”
The NFA officials failed to address the problem of the lack of supply of affordable rice in the market, he said.
“Nag-import sila para maresolba ang problema pero mukhang lumala pa ngayon ang sitwasyon at nauwi sa rice crisis sa Zamboanga City,” he said./PN
