A TEAM led by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) yesterday raided and padlocked warehouses in Bulacan after finding P505 million worth of suspected smuggled rice.
Customs Commissioner Bien Rubio, together with Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) Director Verne Enciso, CIIS-Manila International Container Port (CIIS-MICP) agents, and Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) Task Force Aduana, found the imported rice in the warehouses of Great Harvest Rice Mill Warehouse, San Pedro Warehouse, and FS Rice Mill Warehouse, which are all located inside the Intercity Industrial Complex in San Juan, Balagtas, Bulacan.
The 202,000 sacks of imported rice grains were from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand.
Speaker Martin Romualdez and Reps. Mark Enverga of Quezon, who chairs the House Committee on Agriculture and Food, Ambrosio Cruz Jr. of Bulacan and Erwin Tulfo (PL, ACT-CIS) also joined the raid on the invitation of the BOC.
Rubio said he has ordered the owners of the warehouses to present the necessary documents that will support its rice importation, as well as the amount of rice they have been keeping in the storage facilities.
“Smuggling agricultural products, in particular rice as this is a staple food in every Filipino home, poses a grave threat to our economy. It creates a ripple effect that impacts the core of our agricultural sector–our farmers,” Rubio said.
Romualdez said the House team joined the “fact-finding mission” upon Rubio’s invitation and as part of the exercise of their congressional oversight powers.
“’Yung karamihan ng (rice) supply dito aabot na ng three months e, technically that’s hoarding (Most of the rice supply here will last for three months so technically, that’s hoarding),” the Speaker told reporters.
Enciso said the BOC coordinated with the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Balagtas, as well as with personnel from Barangay San Juan to implement the Letter of Authority (LOA) signed by Rubio.
“Only after the LOA was acknowledged by the warehouse representatives did the team proceed to inspect the storage, where they found hundreds of thousands of sacks of rice grain we suspect to be lacking the necessary importation documents,” he said. “As with our protocol, the team padlocked and sealed the warehouse temporarily and proceeded with the inventory of the found goods.”
Customs examiners conducted the inventory of the goods, which was witnessed by agents from the CIIS, PCG, Enforcement and Security Service (ESS) as well as warehouse representatives.
If found without proper importation and proof of payment documents, the corresponding seizure and forfeiture proceedings will be conducted against the subject shipments for violation of Sec. 1400 (misdeclaration in goods declaration) in relation to Sec. 1113 (property subject to seizure and forfeiture) of Republic Act No. 10863, also known as the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA).
For the past few weeks, the price of rice has been steadily rising with retailers selling at P50 to P62 per kilogram in Metro Manila.
“We need to know if there is truly some basis to accusations that hoarders are responsible for the spike of rice prices in the market. Inspections such as these send a powerful signal to all the hoarders and manipulators out there to stop burdening the Filipino people for profit,” said the Speaker, who earlier ordered Enverga’s panel to look into the matter.
Reps. Luis Raymund Villafuerte of Camarines Sur, Brian Yamsuan of (PL, Bicol Saro) and Wilbert Lee (PL, Agri) have filed bills seeking to strengthen anti-agricultural smuggling laws and impose stiffer penalties for hoarders, price manipulators and even government officials involved in the crime.
For his part, Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte has filed House Bill No. 7711 proposing the construction of postharvest facilities in every palay-producing city and municipality in the country, beginning with the building of a rice mill and a warehouse in every legislative district with at least one rice-producing town.
The bill provides that the construction of these postharvest facilities be later expanded to include every rice-producing municipality and city in the country.
“Aside from our oversight functions under the law, we are also doing this in aid of legislation, as we have pending measures in the House of Representatives that seek to penalize the act of hoarding rice and other basic agricultural necessities,” Romualdez said.
NIA
Sen. Raffy Tulfo on Thursday slammed the National Irrigation Administration (NIA) for being remiss in carrying out its mandate of providing sufficient water supply to the more than 3 million hectares of irrigable lands in the country.
Tulfo said water remains inadequate in reaching far-flung areas.
“As of June 2022, only 65.28 percent of the 3.128 million hectares of total irrigable areas in the Philippines are irrigated and only 36 of the 80 target provinces and chartered cities have received agricultural machinery, equipment, facilities, and small-scale irrigation projects,” he said during the hearing of the Senate blue ribbon committee, which he chairs.
NIA administrator Eduardo Guillen, during the panel’s hearing on alleged irregularities in the agency, said that with the present “small budget” of their office, it will take them a century to make water accessible in all nooks and corners of the country.
“At the rate we’re going, at the budget we have, it will take us maybe 80 to 100 years bago natin ma-irrigate ‘yung remaining 1.1 million hectares na potentially irrigable natin (it will take us maybe 80 to 100 years before we can irrigate the remaining 1.1 million hectares which are irrigable),” Guillen said.
Tulfo noted several irrigation projects, which started years ago, remain unfinished until now.
“Several irrigation projects have been pending for completion for more than five years.
Some irrigation projects are not functioning or operating despite being issued a Notice to Proceed. Some projects have failed, uncompleted and have used substandard materials.
Rigged public bidding,” Tulfo said.
He said if all NIA irrigation projects were completed on time, the country would already be self-sufficient and no longer be overly dependent on the importation of rice.
“Sa libu-libong irigasyon, kung namo-monitor niyo lamang at nagawaan ng paraan, aba by the thousands ‘yan, millions of millions tonelada ng bigas ang harvest natin. We don’t need to import kung nagawa. Tama? (We have thousands of irrigation projects and if we had only monitored or found ways to fast track their construction, we would already be harvesting thousands, million tons of rice. We don’t need to import if they were done right. Am I correct?)” Tulfo asked Guillen.
Tulfo said other issues hounding the NIA include contractors submitting fake accomplishment reports, and contractors being paid in advance even if projects have yet to be completed.
On one occasion, he said an P890 million funding was allocated for several projects but their construction never started. He added that most of the anomalous ventures “were allegedly approved by deputy administrator (C’zar) Sulaik.” — With Raymond Africa
