MANILA — Ombudsman Samuel Martires on Tuesday lamented how difficult it is for the National Food Authority to provide them documents needed for their investigation into the alleged anomalous sale of rice buffer stock.

According to Martires, they are having a hard time procuring documents from NFA central office, with some employees saying that documents should be given by the regional offices and vice versa.

“Dito lang kami nahihirapan kumuha ng dokumento. Sa lahat ng ahensiya na iniimbestigahan namin, hindi kami nahihirapan kumuha ng dokumento, agad ay binibigyan kami,” Martires told Teleradyo Serbisyo.

“Wala kaming nakuhang dokumento rito sa central office ng National Food Authority,” he added.

Martires also reacted to calls from the lawyer of the suspended NFA employees for an apology, saying that it is the NFA who should be apologizing for providing wrong information which led to the preventive suspension of 139 employees.

139 NFA officials, employees suspended over sale of rice buffer stocks

“Bakit kami ang mag-aapologize? Kami ang binigyan ng maling data. The data that was given to the DA was provided by the NFA. In the congressional hearing, inamin ng lawyer ng NFA na sila ang nagprovide ng data sa DA, at ang akala daw nila ang hinihingi ng DA ay tungkol sa listahan ng members ng task force?” he said.

“Bakit kami ang mag-apologize? Dapat ang NFA ang mag-apologize. Parang hindi lang ako ang niloloko nila. Niloloko sila si Secretary Laurel, niloloko nila ang taong bayan. ‘Yan ang paulit ulit kong sinasabi. This is the biggest cover up that I have experienced in my life as an investigator,” Martires added.

Last week, the Ombudsman lifted the suspension of 23 warehouse employees after they cooperated with the investigation and gave the necessary documents.

In a statement, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel said they immediately transmitted the list provided by NFA without verifying its accuracy "to avoid suspicion within the agency."

“The list was given to us by NFA and we just forwarded it to the Ombudsman, believing that is current and up-to-date. We had no chance to audit the list because of the urgency of the Ombudsman’s request. Had we verified the list with NFA management, it might have stirred suspicion as to why we are asking too much details; we were already conducting our own investigation at that time,” he said

Ombudsman lifts preventive suspension on 23 NFA employees

Earlier, NFA Assistant Administrator for Operations Lemuel Pagayunan disclosed the alleged selling of 75,000 bags of NFA rice without undergoing the proper public bidding.

In his letter to the Office of the President dated February 13, Pagayungan alleged that NFA Administrator Roderico Bioco issued a memoranda allowing the sale of 75,000 bags of NFA rice totaling P93.75 million to certain traders.

Martires, however, said his office has started its investigation without knowledge of Pagayungan’s letter to the OP.

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