The Philippine National Police (PNP) is intensifying its intelligence operations to locate the warehouses of rice hoarders, Police Chief Director General Oscar Albayalde said on Wednesday.
Albayalde said the PNP’s intelligence gathering intends to help address the problem of rice shortage, which he said is now of “national interest.”
The PNP is intensifying its intelligence gathering efforts to sanction rice hoarders in the country, Police Chief Director General Oscar Albayalde said. @inquirerdotnet
— Cathrine Gonzales (@CGonzalesINQ) September 12, 2018
“We intensify our intelligence gathering to identify those warehouses na nagho-hoard ng bigas, because there are accusations na ‘yung shortage, kung meron man na sinasabi, ay due to hoarding,” he said in a press briefing.
[We intensify our intelligence gathering to identify those warehouses of rice hoarders because there are accusations that the shortage, if it does exists, is due to hoarding.]
READ: Rice crisis blamed on hoarding, corruption, poor agri infrastructure
“Pwede kasing possibility ‘yun. Nandoon lang sa warehouse, hindi nila inilalabas, maghihintay lang na tumaas ang presyo. Ito yung mga tinitingnan natin,” he said.
[It is a possibility. It could be that the rice are just there in the warehouse, they are not releasing it until the price of rice goes up. This is what we are looking at.]
Albayalde said raids on warehouses suspected to be storing hoarded rice will be done by the PNP’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and will be covered by search warrants. /muf