National Food Authority (NFA) administrator Angelito Banayo has asked the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to help in the probe and systems audit of the NFA following President Aquino’s revelation that it incurred a debt of P171.6 billion in the over-importation of rice in 2004 and 2007.

In a briefing in Malacañang, Banayo said the “systems and management audit group” is composed of the NBI and representatives from the private sector led by former San Miguel Corp. Vice President for Purchasing Jesus Posadas.

The audit aims to find out if “both systems and personnel (of the NFA) are functioning properly according to our mandate,” Banayo said.

The group will look into issues hounding the agency such as the "overstocked warehouses; wastage of stocks; inability to help poor farmers; allegation of anomalies in importation, local purchases, contracting of services, selling; and reports of smuggling.”

Banayo said they have asked the justice department to help in the investigation of alleged irregularities.

He said he expect results from the team in the next 30 days.

Meanwhile, Aquino has ordered the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate the irregularities committed by the Arroyo government as bared in his recent State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA).

Presidential Spokesman Edwin Lacierda said the President expects Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to file the appropriate charges against erring officials once sufficient evidence have been gathered.

The President, in his first SONA before a joint session of Congress last Monday, recited a litany of irregularities supposedly committed by the past administration, including an almost bankrupt national budget, irregular distribution of calamity fund, and inefficient rice importation.

“Justice De Lima has been directed to investigate any anomalies. If there is sufficient evidence, appropriate charges will be filed,” Lacierda told reporters in the Palace, a day after the President’s short and straightforward SONA.

Amid criticisms the speech was flawed and inaccurate, Lacierda said the President committed no errors in presenting the wrongdoings by the Arroyo government, including its fiscal irresponsibility, in his SONA. He said the content of the President’s SONA was based on facts coming from the concerned state agencies themselves.

“We did not commit any mistake. There is no fudging of the numbers. The numbers are clear. The statistics came from the Department of Budget and Management,” he said.

Lacierda said it was “natural” that the President’s critics were dissatisfied with the SONA last Monday, highlighted by the Chief Executive’s resolve to run a clean and efficient government.

While some groups cheered the clear-cut SONA delivered by the President, others claimed that it lacked a clear roadmap on how to address the nation’s pressing problems.

Aquino said that in 2004, the Arroyo government imported some 900,000 metric tons of rice even if the shortage then was only at 117,000 metric tons.

He said that in 2007, the Arroyo administration also bought 1.827 million metric tons while the rice shortage was just 589,000 metric tons.

Banayo said the figures cited by Aquino's SONA came from the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics.

Banayo said the NFA's system should be corrected to stop the government's practice of importing rice which, he said, has become an "addiction."

Meanwhile, he said the NFA would withhold pending deliveries of imported rice because its 740 warehouses are still full of imported stocks.

Banayo said he found out last week that the Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC) has ordered 20,000 metric tons of imported rice in June this year even with apparent oversupply of stocks.

He said the NFA has enough rice stocks to last the country until December.

Meanwhile, the NFA has scrapped the iron fortification program for its rice stocks while calling for an investigation into the scheme.

Banayo ordered a stop to the program purportedly due to complaints by retailers that “consumers don’t want it.”

Asked for comment on this move, rice millers expressed surprise at the move since “iron-fortified rice is distinct from other NFA rice stocks since they cannot be rebagged and sold by unscrupulous traders at a neat P200 profit for each 25-kilo bag.”

Long time Philippine Confederation of Grains Association president Herculano Co also asked that the program be continued since it has a positive impact on the nutrition campaign of the Aquino government.

Meanwhile, neophyte Rep. Arthur Yap insisted that the agency he used to head as secretary has fed President Aquino the wrong figures on alleged over-importation of rice.

This despite a Commission on Audit (COA) annual audit report that confirmed that the NFA had indeed failed to dispose of huge shipment of rice from Thailand and Vietnam in 2008.

Yap, former secretary of the Department of Agriculture, said government did not overshoot importation of rice when he was still head of the agency when the Arroyo government resorted to massive importation to address the rice shortage problem that hit the country for several years.

“There was no over importation during my watch,” the newly elected Bohol lawmaker said.

In its 2008 audit report of the NFA, the COA said that some two million bags of imported rice stocks were stored for more than four months and remained in warehouses as of year end, thus “decreasing the maximum benefits in disposing the same at a better selling price.”

The former agriculture secretary said decisions on rice importation were made by an inter-agency committee on rice and corn which has members from the Department of Trade and Industry, the National Economic Development Authority, NFA, and even the PAGASA.

In a related development, President Aquino found an ally in the camp of Vice President Jejomar Binay, who said that it is time to buckle down to work on the problems identified in the SONA. (With reports from Marvyn Benaning, Ben R. Rosario, Madel R. Sabater, Genalyn Kabiling)