MANILA – Senators recently chided Agriculture secretary Emmanuel Piñol for proposing to legalize rice smuggling in resolving a supply shortage in the Zamboanga-Basilan-Sulu-Tawi-Tawi (Zambasulta) area.
Piñol must be careful with his statements, Senator Joel Villanueva said, noting the proposal was a terrible thing to do.
“I don’t know if that is his intention – to legalize , that is – but ‘yan na ‘yung naging message sa atin lahat which is terrible. I am sure he does not mean it. When you are the head of the agency, you should be careful of what you say,” Villanueva said in an interview on ANC.
Asked to rate the Agriculture secretary’s, the senator it is “horrible” based on the Cabinet official’s statement.
Piñol said he was proposing to the National Food Authority Council to legalize rice-related transactions, including smuggling, to address the crisis in Zambasulta.
Earlier on Thursday, Senator Cynthia Villar the idea of legalizing rice smuggling in Zambasulta. “We passed the Large-Scale Agricultural Smuggling law that will declare any smuggled rice … more than P10 million … as economic sabotage and non-bailable.”
For his part, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian believes that Piñol could do better than what he is doing now.
“He can definitely do a lot of reforms. Nakikita ko naman na ginagawa n’ya ang makakaya nya. Definitely, hindi pwedeng business as usual. Dapat reporma na, dahil kung bubuhayin natin uli ang NFA next year at magbibigay uli tayo ng P7 billion … anong assurance natin na magiging maayos ang patakbo. Year in and year out, problema naman,” he told reporters.
But Piñol must be held accountable for the shortcomings of National Food Authority, an attached agency of DA.
“Definitely, the heads of offices should be held accountable. The management of NFA dapat maging accountable and, of course, the ultimate agencies should also be accountable. Siya, being the head of agency, maging accountable siya at sagutin niya bakit nagkakaganito ang agency na ito,” Gatchalian noted.
The senator reiterated his call for abolishing the NFA for failing to fulfill its mandate.
“Kapag in-abolish ang NFA, bababa ang presyo ng bigas to almost P10 per kilo dahil we will now allow cheap rice to be imported. So, I think, after 30 years of existence ng NFA, it’s really about time to admit na failure itong NFA as a policy, and we have to move to different policy which is rice tarrification, na lahat ay nagsasabi, at sa aming computation, bababa talaga ang presyo ng bigas,” (GMA News)
