Bohol Chronicle
Ninety percent of the rice stocked in the local bodegas of the National Food Authority (NFA) are imported while a very minimal part comes from the local farmers.
NFA-Bohol Manager Peng Evasco bared this figure last Thursday amid an impending probe on the reported "
midnight rice importation" during the Arroyo administration.
A check made by the Chronicle last Thursday showed some 35,758 bags of rice are stocked at the NFA bodegas for the month of July.
The three bodegas of the food agency which can accommodate up to 100,000 bags of rice are located in Carmen and Ubay towns and the third one at the NFA provincial office in Mansasa district, this city.
The confirmation of no less than 35,000 bags of rice at the local NFA bodega came as reports revealed that another two million bags of imported rice will be arriving at the NFA regional offices based in Cebu City until the end of this month.
NFA Regional Director Danilo Bonabon likewise confirmed that the present stock inventory of rice in NFA bodegas in Central Visayas would reach 2.6 million bags, aside from the expected 2 million bags arriving this month.
However, Bonabon said the stocks
are also to be distributed to Eastern Visayas, Dipolog and Pagadian cities in Mindanao since Cebu has better port facilities. He clarified that for Central Visayas, NFA needs to maintain 800,000 bags for a month or 35,000 bags a day in the various warehouses.
The rice inventory followed in a wake of allegations by the new Aquino administration that the bags of rice were rotting in NFA warehouses due to over importation by the past Arroyo administration.
Newly appointed NFA chief Lito Banayo said some P100-million imported rice was purchased shortly before former Pres. Gloria Macapagl Arroyo ended her term last June. He disclosed the government issued a permit to import some 20,000 metric tons of rice estimated at P100 million through the government owned Philippine International Trade Corp. (PITC) in late April or early May this year.
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