Clarification on ‘NFA rice’ found in pit

This refers to the news item titled “Cops find NFA rice in Leyte village pit” (Across the Nation, 12/1/15). Inquirer reporter Joey Gabieta wrote that “Tristeza acknowledged that the rice was from the NFA, but he added that plastic bags with markings of the Department of Social Welfare and Development were also retrieved.”

I did not say that the “rice” was from the National Food Authority because I never saw the contents. What I acknowledged was that based on reports, the dumped items were contained in sacks with NFA markings.

In fact, when NFA Northern Leyte employees, accompanied by quality assurance officer Ligaya Maderazo, inspected the pit on Nov. 29, 2015, a Sunday, it was found out that the sacks with NFA markings contained assorted items such as empty sacks with NFA markings, plastic bags with DSWD markings, canned goods, milk powder, and rice—the origin of which is hard to determine because they had already decomposed.

I hope this letter clarifies the matter.

—HENRY H. TRISTEZA, assistant regional manager 2, National Food Authority, Regional Office 8, Pawing, Palo, Leyte

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In my phone interview with Director Tristeza, he made mention that the rice dumped in the pit could be from the NFA considering that the sacks discovered had NFA markings. However, Tristeza said that based on their monitoring, their office had no reports of NFA rice from any government agency or local government unit being dumped. This particular issue was later clarified by DSWD Regional Director Nestor Ramos who said that the grains dumped were from NFA Cebu.

—JOEY GABIETA, Inquirer Visayas