The National Food Authority (NFA) maintained Friday that while we are “swimming in a sea of rice” some of which are now rotting in warehouses, the grain cannot be distributed for free to hungry Filipinos.

NFA information chief Rex Estoperez said this can not be done swiftly or achieved at all since "NFA is not a social welfare agency" and added it might be wise for the urban poor to make representations with Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman on how this could be done.

Earlier, NFA Administrator Lito Banayo clashed with officers of the urban poor coalition Kadamay, which has called for the distribution of rice to poor Metro Manila residents since 726 warehouses owned by the NFA or rented by the agency are filled to the rafters, when he was pressed to just to deliver the grain to the hungry.

This call was echoed by Elmer Labog of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), who said that since the rice has been paid for by taxpayers' money, then it stands to reason that it can be distributed among indirect taxpayers like those who cannot have three square meals a day.

At the Friday Balitaan sa Rembrandt in Quezon City Friday, Estoperez stressed the food agency could not be held liable for the reported over-importation of rice stocks and explained it is the NFA Council headed by the agriculture secretary that sets the policies for the NFA to follow.

The council is comprised of officials from other departments like the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) and even PAGASA.
But the previous administration has a different view of the rice situation.

Elena Bautista-Horn, spokesman of former President and now Pampanga Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, said the importation of rice was a “policy call” of the previous administration, maintaining that there was no over-importation of rice in the previous years.

Horn said the Inter-Agency Committee on Rice and Corn has recommended the importation of rice as a “policy call” to ensure that Filipinos have adequate supply of rice.

The inter-agency committee recommends how much rice should be imported each year, and is composed of representatives of the NFA, DTI, NEDA, and the Department of Finance (DoF).

“If the imported rice were excessive or lacking, perhaps we should give them a little space because it was also a policy call. If you recall in 2007 and 2008, we had a world food crisis. The other countries did not know where to buy rice, and there were long queues for rice,” Horn said.

Horn said the NFA should check the inventory of rice in its granaries because some of the rice stocks were for programs that were present in the Arroyo administration but have been scrapped by the new Aquino administration.

She said the rice intended for the food-for-school program, in which schoolchildren receive one kilo of rice each for every day that they attend school, may have been factored into the NFA's assessment that there was a glut of rice in its granaries.

The food-for-work program, which gives rice instead of salaries to street sweepers for their work, also needs several metric tons of rice to serve as payment to the street sweepers.

Both the food-for-school program and the food-for-work program have been scrapped by the Aquino administration.