MANILA, Philippines (Eagle News) –Around 20 containers of smuggled rice worth of P40 million pesos were seized on Friday (December 16) by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) at the Manila International Container Port (MICP).
According to the BOC Commissioner, Nicanor Faeldon, the sacks were first declared to contain “glutinous supplies”, but upon checking they found out that it held rice reportedly from Hong Kong which was the place of origin as declared in the documents.
“I am really in doubt, whether these sacks came from Hong Kong because they are not rice producers in the first place,” Faeldon said.
The permits and other documents presented were suspicious. This mess declaration is clearly considered a red flag, he said. Supposedly the containers were only for transshipment in the country before they will be delivered to their destinations.
However the vessel that will be used in shipping the goods was not stated in the papers.
the BOC Commissioner said that the possible reason of this dilemma was that this would be used as an excuse to distribute the smuggled rice in different parts of the Philippines. There was no information as to where it should be shipped because the document only said “any point in the Philippines.”
Faeldon said he would look for those inside the customs bureau who were behind the approval of the smuggled rice documents.
“These enormous cargo shipments cannot enter the Philippines, unless someone from the office approved it. Expect us to announce the names of these smugglers, not only for this matter but for all the cases of rice smuggling, after we file the case in court,” Faeldon said.
