By Ermin Garcia Jr.

 

IT’S beginning to be frustrating and disappointing to see how the investigation of the scandalous sale of NFA’s buffer rice stock is proceeding even with a high ranking official of the agency as whistleblower.

Whistleblower Lemuel Paguyuan, Assistant Administrator for operations, surely knows whence he speaks. To a large extent, it was corroborated inadvertently by Frederick Dulay, assistant branch manager of the National Food Authority-Pangasinan, when he explained how his office manages and disposes buffer stocks over a period and for what purpose. (Read this issue’s story on NFA, page 6)

The one common denominator in the statements of the two is there was no NFA policy that says buffer rice stocks can be sold to rice traders.

The question that remains unanswered is: who are the two favored rice traders who bought NFA’s surplus for a song, a measly P25 (or P2 over the purchase price of NFA from farmers). Given the pace by which price of rice skyrockets weekly which can start from P50 per kilo and one bag is estimated to be 50 kilos, the profit to be made by the traders is staggering at the expense of millions of households.

The 75,000 bags for well-milled rice, bought at P25 per kilos, and to be sold for P50 per kilo, translates to a whooping P93,750,000 profit overnight right there to be shared with corrupt NFA officials. To sell at P55, that would be P111,500,000 laway profit for the deal!

If we look at the impact of the deal on the family household’s budget, it means P111.5M in savings by all in monthly rice consumption if the rice were sold at P25 per kilo as PBBM promised.

Imagine how many more bags were removed from the NFA warehouse over the past months when families were already forced to buy at P45-50. Millions were shared daily by the traders with corrupt NFA officials.

Looking out for 5,000 policemen guilty of EJK, who shot and killed suspected “unarmed” 5,000 drug pushers is nothing compared to the thousands of men and women in government who steal and exploit their positions to enrich themselves at the expense of people they vowed to serve!

The drug war saved millions of families from breaking down but the NFA racketeering made millions of lives suffer every day, some to forego some meals without rice, some without rice at all.

I hope PBBM will prove to his constituents and demonstrate that he has the political will to defy the rice cartel, and terminate the mafia operating inside NFA, for starters!!

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SHARING ACCOUNTABILITY AND BLAME. Just when I thought the minority bloc led by Councilor Michael Fernandez struck gold for Dagupeños when he tried to stop the majority bloc led by Councilor Red Erfe-Mejia from continuously running roughshod over the affairs of the sanggunian, the attempt struck a hard rock!

Councilor Fernandez cited a provision in the Local Government Code (LGC) that defines how resolutions should be submitted for approval in plenary sessions only to be refuted by opposition Councilor Alfie Fernandez who cited the rules of the senate on such resolutions.

In other words, Alfie told cousin Michael that he should do more than to simply cite that provision in the LGC because the majority is not buying his (Michael’s) argument.  Was that a challenge to him to submit the issue to the DILG for legal position? Unfortunately, even Vice Mayor Bryan Kua refused to rule on the issue.

When The PUNCH sent Councilor Michael a text asking him if he will pursue his position with the DILG knowing he is right amid the conflict of interpretations. But he did not respond. Would that mean he’s willing to accept cousin Councilor Alfie’s claim over his?

The minority bloc had a chance to file a case against the majority the first time the latter introduced its first set of internal rules violative of the LGC, but it didn’t care to file a case before the DILG.

It could have also filed a complaint before the DILG when the majority refused initially to pass the 2022 annual budget, but the minority didn’t. If it only had the courage to follow the example set by the Ombudsman on the case of the provincial board of Quezon province, ordering the preventive suspension of the board members for six months, it could have spelled a difference for the minority’s pursuit of good governance. Sayang!

It also didn’t file a case vs the majority for submitting and approving their own version of the annual budget, a measly P864-M budget, from a P1.3-B budget submitted by Mayor Belen Fernandez.

By allowing the majority to have its way unchecked throughout, it emboldened the latter to arrogantly have its cake and eat it too!

It was this inexplainable lack of fortitude of the minority to fight for what is right that’s creating further havoc in the city’s dire financial straits. The city government is unable to spend for scheduled programs and to pay salaries and incentives due city hall employees.

Mayor Belen herself didn’t do much to help the situation. She, too, refused to file the cases that could have easily ousted Councilors Red Erfe-Mejia, Alfie Fernandez, Dada Reyna-Macalanda, Celia Chua-Lim, Irene Lim-Acosta, Alvin Coquia and Marilou Fernandez from the sanggunian.

So, wonder no more why Dagupan City continues to suffer on the seven councilors say- so.  Regrettably, the minority must share the blame for not acting decisively for the city.

Meantime, let’s watch the opposition still about to do it worst with the pending action needed for 2024 annual budget.

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WHAT EL NINO?? VG Mark Lambino was quoted during his press conference that the provincial government did not prepare for the onset and impact of the El Niño phenomenon. No budget allocation for it because the warning came late. Duh?

Now, that’s a terrible, terrible lame excuse for not preparing to mitigate the impact of El Niño on Pangasinenses, particularly the agri sector.  If the Sangguniang Panlalawigan failed to prepare the province for El Niño, it was only because it was not interested in it.

Merely pointing to towns and cities capabilities to mitigate the impact of El Niño is a major cop-out. How can these local governments think of preparing for El Niño when the provincial government never rallied them to the cause?

Mr. Lambino’s sanggunian was focused and busy appropriating funds for anything but only for infrastructure projects of the Guico administration. This corner tried to remind the provincial government for months of the impending crisis facing the province due to El Niño, but no reaction on the El Niño until Mr. Lambino’s presscon last week, that’s 6 months late.

And Mr. Guico? Nothing’s still heard from him about his personal concerns about the hostile climate and the plight of farmers in the province. Bahala na si Batman??

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