Catholic Church leaders here have linked up with local government in a bid to expose and eventually prosecute alleged rice hoarders and traders who reportedly continue to manipulate the distribution of the National Food Authority (NFA) rice here and the neighboring areas.
Marbel Diocese Bishop Dinualdo Gutierrez said he has confided to Mayor Fernando Miguel a list of rice traders who were allegedly mixing the cheaper NFA rice with the commercial rice and are eventually selling them at higher prices in the local markets.
"I've been receiving numerous information from various sources. I informed our city officials about it so they can properly conduct an investigation and possibly seek the prosecution these violators later on," he said in a radio interview here.
The bishop admitted that they have no concrete evidence against any violator so they asked city officials to assign "good investigators" to uncover all traders who continually commit such "immoral acts."
"I am also appealing to them to stop what they're doing because it's not only illegal but also immoral," Gutierrez said.
Since March, the NFA provincial office here has already canceled the rice allocations and suspended the accreditation of some rice traders here for violating its regulations, among them the mixing of the NFA rice with the higher commercial rice.
Pangalian Busran, NFA provincial manager, said dubious rice traders dupe their customers by selling the mixed rice at commercial rice levels.
The NFA rice, which were imported by the agency from Thailand and Vietnam, are currently sold in the markets at P18.25 per kilo, much cheaper than the commercial rice that already reached as high as P47 per kilo. - Philippine News Agency
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