Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel, Jr. said Wednesday the National Food Authority (NFA) Council has appointed Piolito Santos, NFA assistant administrator for finance and administration, as officer-in-charge of the agency.
Santos’ appointment as NFA OIC administrator follows the preventive suspension imposed by the Ombudsman on Monday against 139 officials and employees, including NFA Administrator Roderico Bioco, in connection with the ongoing investigation on the disposition of rice buffer stocks allegedly disadvantageous to government.
Laurel announced Santos’ designation as acting administrator during a zoom meeting with NFA employees, where he also urged over 2,000 agency workers to focus on their jobs and not be distracted by the ongoing Ombudsman investigation.
“The NFA is a very important government agency, especially during calamities and other disasters as well as in the lives of millions of poor Filipinos. We cannot lose heart during this challenging time for the NFA and DA family,” Laurel said.
Santos is career service officer who has spent four decades with the NFA and scheduled to retire in May. He has a bachelors degree in Agriculture Business major in Agriculture Economics from the Isabela State University, a masters degree in business administration and a doctorate in Organization Development and Planning from Northeastern College.
The passage of the Rice Tarrification Law in 2019 removed NFA’s rice trading function and limit it to maintaining a national buffer stock equivalent to 300,000 metric tons of rice.
