{"id":179227,"date":"2018-08-30T02:18:59","date_gmt":"2018-08-30T06:18:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=179227"},"modified":"2018-08-30T02:18:59","modified_gmt":"2018-08-30T06:18:59","slug":"malacanang-urges-nfa-council-stop-blame-game-rice-woes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/08\/30\/malacanang-urges-nfa-council-stop-blame-game-rice-woes\/","title":{"rendered":"Malaca\u00f1ang urges NFA, council to stop blame game on rice woes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Escarez said the NFA requested for rice importation as early as October 2017 but the NFA Council only approved it in May this year. (File photo: National Food Authority)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang on Wednesday advised officials of the National Food Authority (NFA) and its policy-making body, the NFA Council, against blaming each other for the country\u2019s insufficient rice supply and its increased prices.<\/p>\n

In a congressional hearing Tuesday, NFA officer-in-charge Tomas Escarez blamed \u201cthe bureaucracy\u201d at the NFA Council for the delayed arrival of imported rice to prevent the stock from depleting.<\/p>\n

Escarez said the NFA requested for rice importation as early as October 2017 but the NFA Council only approved it in May this year.<\/p>\n

However, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Undersecretary Ruth Castelo, a member of the NFA Council, said it was NFA\u2019s fault for submitting its rice supply inventory late.<\/p>\n

Castelo also blamed the NFA for making a declaration of rice shortage which led to a spike in rice prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindi po dapat nagsisisihan<\/em>\u00a0(They should stop blaming each other),\u201d Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in an interview over DZRH.<\/p>\n

Roque said it was clear to him that the NFA Council simply wanted to see the NFA inventory before it started importing rice.<\/p>\n

\u201cMalinaw naman po sa mga debate diyan sa NFA na ang gusto lang makita ng NFA Council, eh ano ba ang imbentaryo, para magkaroon ng dahilan para mag-import<\/em>\u00a0(It is clear that the debate there in the NFA is that the NFA Council wanted to see the inventory to have a reason to start importing),\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPero sa akin po\u2014iyon nga po hindi rin naman nabigyan ng kasagutan iyang hinihinging impormasyon ng NFA Council<\/em>\u00a0(To me, there were never any answers to the information being sought by the NFA Council),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Roque, meanwhile, assured that the government continues to find means to address the country\u2019s rice woes by increasing rice supply.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng solusyon po kasi sa mataas na presyo ng bigas at kakulangan ay damihan ang supply<\/em>\u00a0(The solution to high prices of rice and shortage is to increase the supply),\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt ang supply madadamihan lamang kapag talagang hinayaan na nating mag-angkat ang kahit sino ng bigas<\/em>\u00a0(And the supply can only be increased if we allow anyone to import rice),\u201d he added, subject to paying higher tariffs and protection of local rice farmers.<\/p>\n

Duterte earlier scrapped the rice import quotas and ordered the NFA to purchase locally-produced rice under \u201cbuy high, sell low\u201d policy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat the President has said, instead of the foreigners getting the profit, we better spend it in the Philippines–the Filipino farmers are the ones who will earn,\u201d Roque said.<\/p>\n

Last April, Roque confirmed that President Rodrigo R. Duterte has decided to place the NFA back under the Department of Agriculture (DA).<\/p>\n

Aside from the NFA, the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) and the Fertilizer and Pesticides Authority (FPA) will also return to DA.<\/p>\n

The NFA, PCA, FPA were placed under the Office of the President during the term of former president Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— Malaca\u00f1ang on Wednesday advised officials of the National Food Authority (NFA) and its policy-making body, the NFA Council, against …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":177151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-179227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=179227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/179227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=179227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=179227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=179227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}