ILOILO City – The Regional Manager (RM) of the National Food Authority (NFA) in Region 6 is one of the 12 regional managers of the agency across the Philippines who were placed under preventive suspension for six months by the Office of the Ombudsman amid an ongoing investigation into the sale of the government’s rice buffer stocks.
Leo V. Damole officially took office as manager of NFA Region 6 on January 18, 2024, taking over from then officer-in-charge and concurrent acting assistant regional manager Herrielle V. Jumagbas.
Before his assignment in Region 6, Damole served as manager of NFA Region 4.
He could not be reached for comment as of this writing.
Damole served as assistant regional manager of NFA Western Visayas from August 2022 to February 2023.
According to an article in the Philippine Star on March 1 titled “Complaint filed at OP exposes ‘mafia’ at NFA”, the Ombudsman decided to place NFA Administrator Roderico Bioco and 138 other officials and employees of the agency under six months preventive suspension amid the ongoing investigation into the alleged anomalous sale of the government’s rice buffer stocks.
In addition to Bioco, the other suspended NFA officials without pay included Assistant Administrator for Operations John Robert Hermano, 12 regional managers, 26 branch managers, and 99 warehouse supervisors stationed in various regions across the Philippines.
Thursday last week, angry lawmakers scolded officials of the NFA after they learned that the agency sold its buffer stock to private traders at P25 a kilo when the market price of the grain was at P70 a kilo.
“Why didn’t you sell to the government? Why did you sell to a private corporation?” Deputy Minority Leader and ACT-CIS Party-list Rep. Erwin Tulfo asked Bioco.
Bioco and other officials of the agency were summoned to a motu proprio inquiry of the House Committee on Agriculture to explain the sale of 75,000 bags of “deteriorating or aging” NFA rice worth P93.75 million to two private rice traders at low prices and without the NFA Council’s approval. (With a report from the Philippine Star and Philippine Daily Inquirer)/PN
