Tuesday, March 04, 2008 NFA retailer blows lid on rice 'distribution scam' By Danilo V. Adorador III
A NATIONAL Food Authority (NFA) grains retailer in Cagayan de Oro admitted he had been given excessive rice allocation in collusion with an employee working inside the food agency.
Emilio Oclarit, a rice seller in Agora Market, confessed the irregularity even as he apologized to his colleagues at the Grains Retailer Confederation of the Philippines (Grecon).
"I admit receiving an unusually high allocation (of NFA rice) and I'm sorry for it. I apologized to Grecon for this because this has tarnished the name of the organization," Oclarit told Grecon members who called a press conference Monday after its members were dragged into the rice distribution controversy at the NFA-Northern Mindanao.
Grecon is the nationwide marketing arm of the NFA. On average, each licensed NFA retailer is allocated 50 to 100 bags per week, which are sold in authorized retail outlets at P18.25 per kilo.
Documents provided by Grecon show that Oclarit received 33,456 bags of NFA rice this year alone for his lone rice stall in Agora Market.
Oclarit readily admitted the figure, saying he was able to receive an abnormally high supply of NFA rice in collusion with an employee at the NFA regional office based in Barangay Tablon.
Pressed on the identity of the said employee, Oclarit said he would divulge the details "in the proper forum and in the presence of my counsel."
The controversy surfaced after Grecon regional director Helen M. Cosin was tagged by a group of NFA-Northern Mindanao employees into the alleged diversion of rice stocks.
NFA Employees Association president Eduardo Bade accused NFA-Northern Mindanao regional director Alan Borja of favoring Cosin and her group by giving them greater rice allocation that exceeded beyond the regularly monthly allotment.
Bade said the diverted rice supply would then be re-bagged and sold as commercial rice that can fetch from P25 to P30 -- depriving the poor of their right to affordable rice as a consequence.
NFA has also sought the ouster of Borja.
Cosin countered it was Bade's group who are seeking a cover-up of the rice distribution anomalies in the NFA Misamis Oriental provincial office.
According to Cosin, Bade's group has taken the cudgels for former NFA provincial manager Macario Lagura, who was ordered transferred from the job last January after Grecon complained of unfair rice allocation among retailers under his watch.
An official NFA document provided by Grecon disclosed that the former NFA provincial manager has already been reassigned at the national office early this year.
Bade has earlier claimed that Lagura has been forced to resign when Grecon lobbied hard for the latter's ouster.
Cosin said Lagura had tried to file for an early retirement but had been forced to stay by the national office pending the resolution of complaints against him.
She also furnished reporters of a letter purportedly written by Lagura, asking apology to Grecon "on the lapses our office have committed that have adversely affect the good relationship we have established."
The letter, which bore Lagura's signature, is dated December 8, 2007.
