MALACAÑANG is unfazed by the prospect of a legal challenge to the new rice trade liberalization law before the Supreme Court, as it disputed claims that the government is “railroading” the reorganization of the National Food Authority (NFA).
This, as tenured employees of NFA threatened to file a petition before the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the measure, which they believe could cause thousands of NFA workers to lose their jobs.
“Any citizen or a group of citizens can file a petition in court. We do not interfere with the function of the Judiciary. The government studies any government action before it performs it,” Panelo said in a text message to the BusinessMirror, adding that it is “false” to claim that the national government is rushing things and wants to railroad everything.
Asked if the Palace is confident that the SC will rule in favor the legality of the measure, the Palace spokesman said: “As I said, we will leave that to the SC.”
The BusinessMirror earlier reported that the NFA Employees Association (NFAEA) Central Office President Maximo M. Torda had said their group will file the petition by May.
Torda said the NFAEA will question the legislative history of the law, which started first as a rice tariffication bill, then evolved into a measure that affected government safeguards against imports and included the deregulation of the food agency.
Torda said NFAEA’s upcoming Supreme Court case is only part of a series of legal challenges that will be made by various rice-industry stakeholders against the new law in the coming weeks.
Since Torda said no NFA employee could be displaced until June due to the election ban, this will give the NFA more time to discuss the reorganization and restructuring of the grains agency to fulfill its new mandate under the new law.
Torda cited the commissioning of an independent study that would outline the NFA’s buffer-stocking role under the new trade regime as the basis for the agency’s reorganization.
This, he said, would allow the NFA to determine how many workers will be displaced.
Torda said some 1,000 employees will be affected by the NFA reorganization mandated by the new law, higher than the initial estimate of 400 made by government officials.
The 400 NFA employees who may be displaced are from the industry services department and security services and investigation department, which are directly involved in the NFA’s previous regulatory functions of licensing importers and retailers and monitoring the country’s rice trade.
The National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) said the reorganization of the NFA will affect less than 500 employees. Neda Regional Development Office Assistant Secretary Mercedita A. Sombilla also earlier told the BusinessMirror that these employees are involved in the importation and licensing functions of the NFA.
The importation and licensing function of the NFA has been repealed under Republic Act 11203. Under the new law, the NFA’s functions have been limited to buffer stocking.
Sombilla said the higher number cited by the NFA union was based on a survey of employees who wanted to avail themselves of the “retirement package” to be offered by the government. This means the number includes both the affected employees and those who want to leave NFA. The survey was done prior to the signing of the law’s IRR.
Under the IRR, NFA employees will receive up to 1.5 times their monthly basic salaries (MBS), depending on their years of service.
Initially, Sombilla said this was not the computation offered by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM). She said determining the compensation package was one of the reasons the IRR was not signed immediately after the law was passed.
Under Rule 3.4.1.2, the package of employees who are in their first 20 years of service will be equivalent to their MBS multiplied by their years of service.
However, those who have reached 20 years and one day to 30 years of employment will receive a package that is equivalent to 1.25 times their MBS for every year of service.
Those who stayed longer at 30 years and one day or more, will receive 1.5 times their MBS for every year of service.