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MANILA, Philippines — As part of its ongoing campaign against sugar hoarding, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) on Tuesday said it discovered P1.8 billion worth of imported goods, including local and imported sugar, during a warehouse inspection in Nasugbu, Batangas.
The BOC said its agents, military, and police operatives inspected the Central Azucarera Don Pedro warehouse in Brgy. Lumbangan on Sunday and found the imported goods and sugar.
According to the BOC, an estimated 181,299 sacks – at 50 kilos per sack – of imported pure refined sugar from Thailand and some 197,590 sacks – at 50 kilos per sack – of local white sugar were recovered at the warehouse.
“We consider this a huge breakthrough in our ongoing campaign against sugar hoarding. This may be one of our biggest operations to date since we started inspecting sugar storage facilities,” Customs Commissioner Yogi Filemon Ruiz said in a statement.
The assigned Customs examiners, Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS), Enforcement and Security Service, and warehouse representatives will facilitate the inventory of the confiscated goods, Ruiz noted.
The warehouse is currently closed following the inspection, the BOC also said.
READ: Warehouse raids yield ‘suspected hoarded sugar’
Ruiz admitted they still have “more work to do” despite their latest operation.
“Clearly, there is more work to do. As big as this inspection is in terms of what we have been focused on for the past couple of weeks, it seems some people or groups or businesses have yet to understand that we are dead serious about this mission,” he said.
“We aren’t stopping anytime soon, and working together with different government agencies – from the police to the military – showed what we can do when we pour all our resources and energy into doing what we are mandated to do and what the President has asked from us,” the commissioner added.
Aside from the inspection in Batangas, the BOC previously conducted warehouse inspections in Bulacan and Pampanga to intensify the government’s anti-sugar hoarding campaign.
The inspections, the BOC said, stemmed from the issuance of the controversial Sugar Order No. 4, which would have authorized the importation of 300,000 metric tons of sugar into the country.
READ: Bongbong Marcos mentioned 600,000 MT in import sugar meeting, says ex-SRA exec
Under Sugar Order No. 4, the country would supposedly import an additional 300,000 metric tons of sugar as approved by President and concurrent Agriculture Secretary Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
The Palace denied Marcos’ involvement in the sugar importation fiasco, saying that he rejected the proposal.
Recently, the Senate blue ribbon committee has concluded its investigation and decided to devise a resolution to determine if there are charges to be filed against people involved in the sugar importation mess. — Christian Paul Dela Cruz, Inquirer.net trainee
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