Council to find out if shortage of NFA rice true or “drama,” Evasco says

February 7, 2018

The National Food Authority Council would find out if there is really a shortage of NFA rice or just a "drama" to pressure the interagency body to approve a proposal to import rice, an official said on Wednesday.

In a phone patch interview with reporters, NFA Council chairman Leoncio Evasco Jr. said the interagency council usually receives recommendation from the food security cluster if there is a need to import rice.

"If there is a proposal to purchase rice from outside, we have to look into a recommendation from food security. They're the ones tracking down if there is rice shortage now or next few weeks," he said.

Evasco said the NFA Council composed of representatives from the National Economic and Development Authority, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Department of Finance, Land Bank of the Philippines, and Department of Trade and Industry "did not receive any notice  from the food security that there is urgency to buy rice."

He said his office would try  "to find what really is true or this is just a drama to pressure the Council to purchase rice."

He said purchasing rice is a "very sensitive" issue,  adding, "I just don't want to say it in public."

"We have a task to protect government from unscrupulous purchases of rice," added Evasco, also the Cabinet Secretary.

NFA has said its buffer stock of rice has been depleted. Reports have said the NFA rice stocks were only good for two days.

NFA has been asking the NFA Council to import 250,000 metric tons of rice but the Council has not acted on it

Evasco said he did not want to speculate whether the NFA rice stocks were only good for two days.

""I don't want to say it's true or not but I have to operate with actual operation. I have to check if that is true or not," he said.

"We have to be very, very careful  in purchasing rice from outside also so as not to threaten production of our farmers," Evasco added.

Prior to the Aquino administration in 2010, the Philippines was one of the major importers of rice. CelerinaMonte/DMS