Leyte mayor asks Customs to release P23.9M rice shipment

The municipal government of Isabel, Leyte is asking the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to release the 16,000 sacks of rice that were impounded last week on suspicion these were smuggled into the country.

Mayor Gregorio Cerillo said the rice shipment which was unloaded from the freighter Queen of Joy was taken to Cebu as the roof of the  warehouse in his town was blown away by supertyphoon Yolanda.

“I hope they would release the rice stocks because I’m worried that there won’t be enough rice for the affected families in our town in the coming days,”  Cerillo said in a press conference yesterday.

Cerillo denied reports that the   P23.9 million rice shipment was illegal.

The Customs district office in the Port of Cebu ordered the detention of the  shipment after the National Food Authority (NFA) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said they were not aware of its scheduled delivery in Isabel town.

A certification issued by the NFA office in  Malolos, Bulacan identified the shipper as Maunlad Rice Mill Corp. which is located in San Juan, Batangas. It  had no information on the consignee.

The mayor said the rice shipment was bought by the municipal government and Philippine Phospate Fertilizer Corp. which operates in Isabel town.

Ramon Tan, president of  the Association of Barangay Captains (ABC) in Isabel is vice president of the fertilizer firm.

Tan said the rice shipment was temporarily unloaded in Cebu since their warehouse in Leyte was roofless.

“It was still raining last week and the warehouse was roofless,” he told reporters.

Tan said there was no smuggling since PhilPhos Corp. is a fertilizer company and the rice was sourced from Maunlad Rice Mill Corp., a licensed retailer of rice in Bulacan.

Cerillo said the Isabel municipal government and PhilPhos Inc. were working together to distribute relief goods to typhoon victims in the town.

There are 24 barangays in Isabel, Leyte of which 95 percent of the 50,000 population were affected by the supertyphoon, Cerillo said.

The mayor said they only received assistance from the national government on the 11th day after the supertyphoon hit.

Cerillo said the bulk of the national government’s relief efforts were focused on Tacloban City.