BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
ILOILO City – The provincial managers of the National Food Authority (NFA) in Iloilo and Capiz have been relieved from their posts following the confiscation of 1,047 bags of NFA rice repacked as commercial rice in a warehouse in Barangay Napnud, Leganes, Iloilo.
Suspended effective August 4 until further notice were NFA Iloilo manager Marianito Bejemino and Capiz manager Erna Abello.
NFA Special Assistant Patricia Galang-de Jesus issued the relief order.
Aside from the two managers, several other NFA employees had also been relieved based on the paper trail, said Acting Assistant Regional Director Hedy Jardeleza.
“The relief order doesn’t mean they are already guilty. It’s to give way to the investigation,” said Jardeleza.
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Region 6, meanwhile, has already filed charges for violation of Presidential Decree No. 4 and the Price Act against Leganes warehouse owner Dennis de Vicente and 20 of his men suspected to have re-bagged NFA rice.
According to Jardeleza, the investigation will commence once NFA Region 6 receives instruction from their central office as to who will compose the investigating team.
NBI agents raided the Leganes warehouse on July 31 following reports that NFA rice was being repacked to be sold as commercial rice.
NBI men caught workers “in the act” of transferring rice from what appeared to be sacks of the NFA to plain white ones.
Presidential Assistant for Food Security Francis Pangilinan and NFA administrator Arthur Juan came to Iloilo a day after the operation to personally check the warehouse.
Pangilinan ordered the immediate filing of the case against the perpetrator.
It was previously reported that 1,400 bags of rice were seized, but NBI later came out with its “official” count of 1,047 bags.
NBI agents had been making rounds about 10 p.m. on July 31 when they noticed two trucks loaded with sacks of rice.
They followed the trucks until they reached the warehouse in Leganes.
“We became suspicious. We have personal knowledge that under the rule of the NFA, once magkuha sang allocation halin sa bodega, dapat diretso mismo sa retailers. Nakita namon nga nagliko sia sa coastal road kag nagsulod sa warehouse,” said an NBI agent who asked not to be named.
The agents also found other white sacks filled with rice inside the warehouse and empty NFA sacks at the back, the NBI investigating team said.
One of the trucks that the NBI men followed up to the Barangay Napnud warehouse was reportedly from Roxas City. Its driver was quoted in radio reports as saying that the sacks of rice he delivered to the warehouse were from a private warehouse in Roxas City./PN
