Please allow us to clarify a quote attributed to the undersigned regarding the story “Govt extends arrival date for rice imported under MAV” on page A8 of the BusinessMirror’s March 1, 2017 issue.
Specifically, I am referring to paragraphs 7 and 8:
“Earlier, NFA Spokesman Marietta J. Ablaza told the BusinessMirror farmers’ cooperatives and private companies asked the NFA for a one-month extension of the deadline.
“The import permits were distributed only last December and with the holidays, farmers’ cooperatives and firms had very limited time to prepare the necessary paperwork,” Ablaza said.”
Please be informed that the above information was given on February 15 when your reporter, Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas, inquired whether the deadline for rice import arrivals under MAV shall be extended. At that time, it was the reason given by the farmer cooperatives when they requested for an extension of the deadline. But in response, the NFA management decided not to extend the deadline of February 28, 2017, for the rice arrivals. Thus, using the quote for a story written two weeks after the info was given is no longer valid. In fact, it has created a misunderstanding and resulted to a misinformation among your readers.
I hope you could provide a space for this clarification for your readers that the NFA did not extend the deadline for rice-import arrivals under the minimum access volume scheme of the World Trade Organization.
Marietta J. Ablaza
NFA Spokesman and Officer In Charge / Public Affairs Department