SUBIC BAY FREEPORT ZONE -- Bureau of Customs chief Ruffy Biazon said the 420,000 sacks of rice currently kept in warehouses at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone will be auctioned off.
The BOC seized the rice after the importer and the Indian supplier failed to produce an import permit from the National Food Authority 30 days after the shipment arrived in April. The SBMA also did not issue an admission entry for the cargo because of the lack of an NFA import permit.
“The first thing that comes to mind is to dispose of it by auction and collect revenues,” Biazon said at a press conference here. “That (collection of revenues) is one of our principal mandates.”
“While we respect and agree on the principle of donating it, there are other mandates that we have to fulfill,” Biazon explained.
Biazon is in Subic to attend the two-day Subic Bay Maritime Conference and Exhibit, August 23-24, 2012.
He said the BOC is in close coordination with the Department of Social Welfare and Development and the latter agency claims it has enough supply of rice.
Biazon said the suggestions to donate the rice had come from people “on the sidelines.”
The Senate is currently hearing the alleged attempt, which supposedly includes a top official of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority and a large grains supplier in India, to smuggle in P500M worth of rice through the Freeport.
Biazon said the BOC would have finished its own investigation much earlier were it not for the Senate inquiry, but added, “What is transpiring at the Senate hearing will help us a lot in arriving at a decision.”
At the resumption of the joint panel Senate investigation led by the committee on agriculture and food on August 22, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile issued show-cause-orders against SBMA deputy administrator for business and investment Stefani Sano; Amira C Foods International CEO Protik Guha; Metro Eastern Trading Corp vice president Cesar Bulaon; and Cesar Ramirez of the Federation of San Miguel Farmers Cooperative; asking them to explain within one week why they should not be cited for contempt and arrested for giving conflicting statements before the inquiry.
Sano and another SBMA official, Redentor Tuazon, voluntarily went on leave three weeks ago following allegations they both connived with Freeport locators to smuggle in the rice.
Last week, the SBMA placed Sano on preventive suspension after he admitted at the second Senate hearing that he dropped the name of Enrile in securing from the office of Tuazon a “certificate” that would have facilitated the release of the rice.
Biazon said the confiscated rice is being taken care of by representatives of the Indian rice trader.
“Probably they are hoping that they can still recover the illegal shipment,” Biazon said when asked about the current condition of the rice.
He added that the auction will be held in Subic and that it will be open to “participants from anywhere, but not Amira.”
source: interaksyon.com
