Congress urged to reallocate more funds for NFA

A group has urged Congress to reallocate more money and strengthen the mandate of the National Food Authority (NFA) because it sells rice at lower than market rates. The call was made on Thursday by food security advocates, who criticized the Aquino administration for following a World Bank proposal to remove an P8-billion NFA rice subsidy as reflected in the 2011 national budget. "A connivance between the new government and the lending institution" may have appeared to have taken place, the Task Force Food Sovereignty (TFFS) said in a statement. The "connivance" placed farmers and poor households in an unfavorable position since it is "tantamount to depriving small farmers and the general public, majority of whom are low-wage earners, access to cheaper and sufficient rice," Arze Glipo, TFFS lead convener, said in the same statement. Funds and NFA subsidies for the National Irrigation Authority (NIA) were removed in the 2011 budget. The resources "are critical to boosting the Philippines' domestic rice output and helping our country achieve rice self-sufficiency," Glipo said Citing various reports, the group said that the World Bank urged the Aquino administration to finally stop subsidizing rice because the government continues to acquire huge losses from this program. NFA debts rose by more than six times since 2003, a report said. [See: Purisima orders probe into P171-B NFA debt] In July, the agency reported P171 billion in debts, roughly six times its P28 billion obligations in 2003. The NFA provides a rice price subsidy to the poor by buying the staple at P29 to P30 a kilo — the current commercial rice rates — and selling the grain at P23.50 a kilo. Due to leakages in the system, the World Bank said subsidized grain prices also benefited non-poor households. The TFFS recognized the flaws in the system and suggested "massive reforms in the NFA bureaucracy [by] removing officials and personnel colluding with commercial traders" adding, “civil society and farmers’ associations must be involved in NFA policy-making, implementation and monitoring" activities, Glipo said. “It is high time that our legislators exercise greater sovereignty in decision-making," she added. "The government and the Congress are not accountable to the World Bank, but to the Filipino people. Ensuring that every Filipino citizen would have access to cheap rice and can eat at least three square meals a day remains to be one of the biggest obligations of our government to the people." The NFA "is in the process of charting new directions," its administrator Angelito Banayo told GMANews.TV in a text message. "The agency will redefine its scope of work in order to work for greater food security and rice production," he said, adding that a systems and management audit is expected to be finished by mid-September. —JE/LBG, GMANews.TV