The National Food Authority (NFA) in Bohol continues to sell subsidized rice varieties in the province, but they are now only selling locally sourced rice supplies.

NFA Bohol provincial manager Ping Evasco said that they still have 20,000 sacks of rice left while another shipment is expected to be delivered next month.

The NFA rice is still being sold by the agency at P27 per kilo.

According to Evasco, NFA rice supply for Central Visayas is being sourced from Mindoro as the agency’s imported rice supplies were already depleted last year and they are no longer allowed to import.

“Ang atong supply is all local rice na g’yud,” she said.

The NFA was already relegated to keeping buffer stock for emergency purposes and buying un-milled rice from farmers through the Rice Tariffication Law, but Evasco noted that President Duterte ordered the agency to continue selling subsidized rice.

They however are maintaining their commercial functions without the supply stabilization mandate.

“Dili na pareha sauna na kinahanglan g’yud na e-stabilize ang presyo sa commercial. Kung motaas, dapat ang NFA mo dagan g’yud to the rescue, dili na ngana ang scenario ron,” she said.

Meanwhile, NFA’s Bohol office is still awaiting the implementation of a restructuring program which was set in motion through the signing of the Rice Tariffication Law that left the agency with a leaner role.

A total of 1,792 plantilla jobs are expected to be lost with the agency’s imminent downsizing, but Evasco noted that only about “three or four” posts in Bohol will be affected.

She said that positions under the agency’s regulatory division are the ones that will be slashed.  

“Naa g’yud maapektuhan. Pero wala pa ni siya mahitabo, paabot ra pud mi,” she added.

The NFA was previously expected to lose its commercial functions once its imported rice stock is fully depleted and to retain only its emergency buffer-stocking mandate. (A. Doydora)