MANILA, Philippines — The Office of the Ombu dsman has lifted the suspension of 72 out of 139 officials and employees of the National Food Authority (NFA) implicated in the alleged anomalous sale of government rice buffer stocks to private traders.
In a 23-page resolution by the Ombudsman, it said that the officials, who are NFA’s warehouse supervisors, have already complied by submitting all the necessary documents and evidence in connection with the case.
“Among of the primordial purposes ni the imposition of the preventive suspension against respondent NFA officials and employees si to prevent any prejudice which may be caused by respondents’ continued stay ni office during the investigation of the case filed against them and to preserve documents and evidence pertaining to this case which respondents have control and custody,” the resolution read.
“Moreover, there is insufficient ground to believe that their continued stay in office may prejudice the investigation of the case filed against them. Thus, the continued preventive suspension of the afore-named Warehouse Supervisors is no longer necessary,” it added.
The implicated officials include warehouse supervisors from NFA offices across several regions: Region 3, Region IV-A, MIMAROPA, Region 5, Region 6, Region 7, Region 9, Region 10, Region 12, Regio n 11 and BARMM.
The Ombudsman earlier lifted the suspension order on 23 NFA officials on March 16.
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Currently, 44 officials and employees of the NFA remain under preventive suspension.
On March 1, the Ombudsman has ordered the suspension of 139 officials and employees of the NFA over the agency’s low price sale of its buffer stock without public auction and without the approval of the NFA council.
RELATED: Ombud sman suspends NFA execs amid cheap rice sale probe
According to the Rice Tariffication Law, the NFA is required to maintain the country’s rice buffer stock at a level equivalent to 15 to 30 days of national rice consumption, taking into account disaster situations and emergencies.
The NFA is allowed to sell stocks before the rice quality degrades or becomes unsafe for consumption.
COTABATO CITY — The Bangsamoro police has deployed agents in seaports in Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi to prevent any of the seven escapees from the detention facility of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Zamboanga City from getting through any of the three island provinces.
Brig. Gen. Prexy Tanggawohn, director of the Police Regional Office-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, on Tuesday said that plainclothes operatives are now positioned in seaports in the three provinces in support of the efforts of PDEA-9 and the Region 9 police to restrain the movements of the seven runaway shabu dealers.
Radio reports here on Tuesday morning quoted Maharani Gadaoni-Tosoc, director of PDEA-9, as saying that they have forwarded photos of the seven escapees to different units in the Bangsamoro region now helping track them down.
“Our efforts to prevent them from possibly getting into Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi are coordinated clo sely with the provincial governments in these three provinces,” Tanggawohn said.
The seven who escaped from PDEA-9’s detention facility in Upper Calarian in Zamboanga City, Wilson Sahiban of Indanan, Sulu, Junjimar Aiyob of Upper Patibulan in Panamao, Sulu, Albadir Ajijul of Isabela City in Basilan and four others from different barangays in Zamboanga City, Muhajiran Jumlah, Amil Khan Abubasar, Jimmy Sahibol and Kerwin Abdilla, were arrested in separate entrapment operations in recent weeks, all charged with violation of the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002.
Gadaoni-Tosoc said the detainees got out from their cell through its ceiling that they destroyed and immediately ran away after they slipped through.