The Office of the Ombudsman has imposed a preventive suspension on 139 National Food Administration (NFA) officials, led by its administrator Roderico Bico, supposedly involved in the illegal sale of rice buffer stocks.

In a statement released Monday, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel, Jr. said he will be temporarily taking over the agency.

“To avoid any delays in the services and projects of the agency, I will temporarily take over the leadership of the NFA. Apart from the suspended NFA personnel, who as we speak after being served their suspension letters, we expect everyone in the agency to do their regular jobs to ensure that our countrymen are provided the service they deserve,” Laurel said.

He added that he has created a special panel of internal investigators to identify who should be held accountable and to prevent the same incident from happening again.

De Mesa said Laurel had advised the officials involved in the incident to take a voluntary leave of absence.

Bioco is accused of issuing a memorandum that allowed the sale of 75,000 bags of NFA rice worth P93.75 million to private traders.

Meanwhile, Senator Imee Marcos has filed a resolution seeking a separate investigation by the upper chamber into the NFA rice controversy.

Laurel said that Bioco has previously filed a leave to allow the investigators to probe the incident.

“We intend to dig deep as far as 2019 at least and welcome those who would come forward to assist us in cleansing the NFA,” Laurel said.

“The preventive suspension will allow the Ombudsman to secure all the documents and other evidence relating, but not limited, to the sale of rice buffer stocks that is greatly disadvantageous to the government. The Ombudsman and the Department of Agriculture have been coordinating on this investigation that could go back years,” he added. Jaspearl Tan/DMS