About 400 employees of the National Food Authority (NFA) would be “directly affected” if the rice tariffication bill is enacted into law. “You have to go through an entire reengineering and retrenchment, is that a natural part of the process because you are no longer attending to the regulatory functions…?” Pangilinan said. At present, Escarez said the NFA had at least 4,200 employees and about 400 of them were involved in the regulatory. “Walang provision ang rice tariffication on the abolition of NFA,” Villar told reporters after the hearing. ADVERTISEMENTREAD: Bicam panel okays rice tariffication billOnce ratified by both chambers, the bill will be sent to President Rodrigo Duterte for signing.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer November 26, 2018 05:26 UTC