HOUSE Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez on Sunday supported the abolition of the policy-making National Food Authority Council to address rice shortages and stabilize the price of rice in the market.
“Personally, I think we don’t need such a council. We already have an NFA administrator,” Alvarez said in a radio interview.
“Now if he would only do his job I don’t think we would have any problems.”
Alvarez said he would support the reconstitution of the council.
A congressional investigation may be in order to determine the amendments to the law that created the body.
“We might have to look into this matter because if the council was created by law, we need to amend it,” Alvarez said.
President Rodrigo Duterte wants the 18-member body abolished amid the disagreements over the rice importation policy between it and the NFA.
Malacañang later clarified that the President just wanted the council reconstituted.
Duterte ordered the NFA to proceed with its rice importation following complaints of the lack of supply of cheaper NFA rice.
“I don’t understand why we still need to import rice,” Alvarez said.
He said there were still vast tracts of agricultural land in Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao that could be used to produce rice if provided with irrigation and other necessary government support.
He said rice production in Mindanao exceeds local demand, adding the Department of Agriculture, National Irrigation Administration and the NFA administration should get their act together to look deeper into the problem of the country’s rice supply and find a suitable solution.
