‘Buddy R’ tagged in rice import scam

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

DAVAO CITY—Amid reports about a David Tan being behind massive rice smuggling in the country and the search for who he really is, a militant organization that had been alleging widespread corruption in rice importation by the government said a bagman is operating in the agriculture department delivering rice import contracts to private traders and hundreds of millions of pesos in kickbacks to officials.

The bagman, according to lawyer Argee Guevarra, president of the group Sanlakas, is “Buddy R.”

Guevarra issued the statement amid the controversy over a David Tan allegedly controlling the smuggling of rice into the country, including in this port where two shipments of rice are currently on hold on suspicion of smuggling.

Kickbacks from imports

According to the Sanlakas statement, Buddy R “manages kickbacks” generated from the importation by the National Food Authority (NFA) of rice. The NFA imports rice as buffer stock after reports showed that the government is not likely to be able to meet its rice production targets this year.

Buddy R, according to the Sanlakas statement, is a trader that corners contracts from the agriculture department to import rice and delivers commissions to officials involved in the rice importation deals.

“Besides being involved in the illicit rice scheme, he is engaged in buying NFA properties at a very cheap price and selling or leasing the same at a higher cost,” said Guevarra in the Sanlakas statement.

Guevarra said this Buddy R “went to Singapore to receive kickbacks” on behalf of a top agriculture official. The commissions were for the April 2013 deal between the Philippine and Vietnamese governments for the importation by the Philippines of rice from Vietnam.

Overpriced

In November alone, Guevarra said Buddy R raked in “huge kickbacks from the importation of 500,000 MT of rice at a price of $462 per MT.” The importation, according to the Sanlakas statement, is overpriced by up to P400 million.

“Buddy R is one of the respondents in the plunder case I filed against Alcala and NFA administrator Orlan Calayag. This Buddy R is the government’s ‘David Tan’ in rice smuggling who is in charge of determining and distributing kickbacks from rice importation,” said Guevarra.

“The witch hunt for a certain David Tan is obviously part of a grand plot to instill fear among legitimate rice traders who can be accused of being Tan,” said Guevarra.

“Buddy R is a real person while Tan is a fictional character,” he said.

Real person

Guevarra urged the Department of Justice and the Ombudsman to “run after Buddy R” instead of “wasting time in going after a ghost.”

“Buddy R is a real person while David Tan is a product of fiction, a bogeyman or a phantom created to cow legitimate rice traders,” he said.

“I will ask the DOJ to investigate this person to know his dealings and identify his handlers,” Guevarra said.

Mayor Rodrigo Duterte of this city has come under fire from the Commission on Human Rights for saying he would kill smugglers who operate in his city. Human Rights Commissioner Etta Rosales said the statements made by Duterte were unethical. Allan Nawal, Inquirer Mindanao