Bureau of Customs. (File photo from the Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines — Customs agents have found over 460,000 sacks of sugar in three warehouses in Bukidnon, Malacañang Palace said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Office of the President ordered the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to conduct an inspection of the three warehouses owned by Crystal Sugar Milling Inc. in North Poblacion, Bukidnon, “based on intelligence reports that the owners are allegedly engaged in the hoarding of stocks of sugar.”
The customs agents found 466,142 sacks of raw sugar in the three warehouses. Of the total, some 264,000 sacks were said to have already been sold, although they had not been taken from the warehouses.
That was the finding of the initial probe conducted by the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS).
The warehouse manager Javier Sagarbarria told the BOC that the Crystal Sugar Milling had an annual sugar production of about 2 million bags.
The manager could not show the documents to show if the sugar in the warehouses were an authorized stock.
Meanwhile, at a recent press briefing, Press Secretary Trixie Cruz Angeles announced that the BOC and other agencies had started routinely inspecting sugar warehouses as part of the intensified campaign of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. against the illegal importation of agricultural products.
“The government crackdown against hoarders and profiteers is part of the campaign of the Marcos government to bring down the price of sugar,” she said.
Inspections of sugar warehouses have already been conducted by the BOC, the Sugar Regulatory Administration, and the Department of Agriculture (DA) in Deparo, Caloocan City; Balut in Tondo and San Nicolas in Manila; Rosales, Pangasinan; San Fernando, Pampanga; Ibaan, Batangas; and Davao City.
Over the weekend, four warehouses in Guiguinto, Bulacan were found to have at least 60,000 bags of sugar, suspected to be hoarded, by a joint inspection conducted by the three agencies.
Angeles reiterated that the huge volume of sugar discovered by authorities in the various warehouses in Luzon and in Mindanao had led Malacanang to conclude that the sugar shortage was artificial, caused mainly by the hoarders who would want to profit from the sudden spike in prices.
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