MALOLOS CITY—A militant farmers’ group told the National Food Authority (NFA) to pay farmers on time for its palay procurement program after learning that the agency owes Bulacan farmers at least P42-Million.
Pablo Rosales, secretary general of the Pambansang Katipunan ng Makabayang Magsasaka (PKMM), an allied organization of the Kilusan para sa Pambansang Demokrasya said they are wondering over the delay in the payment for the farmers’ produce when Agriculture Sec. Arthur Yap has already made pronouncements that they have already set aside funds for its palay procurement program.
“Hindi namin maintindihan kung bakit kapag may import na bigas may pambayad ang gobyerno pero kapag local na produkto walang pondo ito,” Rosales said.
He added that if the situation is not immediately corrected, it will only add more miseries to the current economic woes that plague local farmers.
Earlier, NFA-Bulacan officials admitted that the agency owed local farmers some P42-M for their palay procurement.
Arturo Figueroa, provincial manager of NFA, said it was due to increase in the volume of palay delivered by farmers to NFA warehouses because the NFA buys palay higher than commercial traders at P17 per kilo to P16.50 per kilo.
Figueroa added that the availability of funds was delayed and it further complicated the situation.
He said that they will soon pay the farmers as they expect the funds to be available this week.
For his part, Nicolas Crisostomo, regional director of NFA in Region III, told Bulacan reporters that the scenario is not only happening in Bulacan but also in other provinces of Central Luzon.
He said the problem may somehow be settled by this week as their central office is expected to increase its fund remittances to the different provincial offices in Central Luzon.
“The farmers have only too many volume of produce they want to sell to our agency that our standby funds are simply not enough to pay for it,” Crisostomo said.
