Friday, July 25, 2008 Byron suspects traders to join bidding for ‘reject’ NFA rice
OVER 11,200 bags of National Food Authority (NFA) rice will be bidded out today.
These bags of rice were considered “unfit for human consumption.”
But Capitol consultant on security Byron Garcia suspected something fishy from the scheduled bidding.
He has a list of 13 businessmen who will be joining the bidding today. They, he claimed, are rice traders.
Consumption
Garcia said that if the bags of rice, totaling 494,688.40 kilos, are “unfit for human consumption” then why are rice traders listed in the bidding?
He believed that traders want to sell the spoiled NFA rice to people. He fears that the poorer Cebuanos would buy the “damaged” rice.
Garcia said he already heard reports that some constituents in Aloguinsan town and Toledo City bought cheaper rice but also of poor quality.
The bags are sold at a lower price, supposedly to be used as feeds for hogs, chickens and others, said Garcia. But a provincial bidding committee document also labeled the rice to be unfit for animal consumption.
The document said, “The subject damaged rice shall only be used for non-food, industrial use...as ingredient of glue manufacturing and the like or as ingredient of organic fertilizer manufacturing.”
Businessmen
Last July 18, pre-bidding was conducted with 13 interested businessmen listed for consideration during today’s bidding.
Garcia said most of them are known rice traders from Manila and one from Dumanjug, southern Cebu.
He also said that a bag of damaged rice can be sold at a cheap price of P2 to P6 each.
Garcia stormed Centennial warehouse at the port area yesterday, where close to 6,000 bags of NFA rice were stored.
Reconditioned
He checked samples from the bags and showed a couple of reporters that the rice seemed okay, believing that it would have been smarter if the bags were just reconditioned or repackaged.
But NFA warehouse supervisor Leah Galaroza explained otherwise. She said that the stocks were stored last year yet, all of which were considered “damaged” after it was soaked in the boat during its delivery.
“We have to bid it out or it will continue to take up space here,” said Galaroza in Bisaya.
“This rice should have been reconditioned because it is not damaged, it doesn’t even have a smell,” said Garcia.
Monitor
“These are already totally damaged,” Galaroza insisted. While it looks and smells normal, it gives off a bad odor when it’s cooked.
“I urge the National Bureau of Investigation, the Criminal Intelligence and Detection Group and other agencies to monitor whether these damaged stocks are really used for its purpose or if it will end up in the rice mills for repackaging,” said Garcia.
“Is this a grand scheme to ride in the so-called rice crisis?” he added. (JGA)
