Manila, June 26 -- The National Food Authority (NFA) on Thursday imposed stricter rules on its palay (unhusked rice) procurement to ensure transparency and to help more local farmers.

This came after the NFA received reports that some "traders" are benefiting from the NFA's palay procurement instead of farmers.

In a Zoom interview, NFA Administrator Larry Lacson said the new rules include provisions that promote transparency.

"We can say, naghihigpit tayo but ang pinaka-main element nito ay (we are getting stricter but the main element of this is) we have increased transparency in terms of our palay procurement to at least iyong agam-agam ng ating mga kababayan na sinasabing traders daw ang nakikinabang (allay the worries of our fellow...