CABANATUAN CITY— At least 500,000 bags of rice imported by the government from Vietnam meant for Central Luzon have arrived at the Subic Bay Freeport in Zambales amid allegations that the importation is tainted with irregularities including the involvement of three alleged smugglers.
In a statement, Amadeo de Guzman, National Food Authority (NFA) director in Central Luzon, said the rice shipment that was now in Subic was part of the 500,000 metric tons of rice that the government is importing from Vietnam as buffer stock.
But in a separate statement, activist lawyer Argee Guevarra said the government importation should be investigated for irregularities amid what he said was the involvement of three top smugglers.
According to De Guzman, an additional 25,000 bags of Vietnam rice would arrive in Subic later this month for Central Luzon together with 200,000 bags meant for Cagayan Valley.
“With this imported rice, a sufficient supply of this staple food is already assured for the region this year,” De Guzman said.
3 smugglers
In his statement, Guevarra said the Bureau of Customs should run after three personalities who were known to be working with the NFA to bring in imported rice that was overpriced.
One of the smuggling operators is based in Cebu and is known only as David Lim. Another is operating from Binondo and is known only as Jojo Soliman and another is a woman who is known among agriculture officials as the Janet Lim-Napoles of the agriculture department.
“Smugglers will always be present. What makes this worse is that they do it in collusion with the NFA and agriculture officials because it is the government that is doing the importation,” Guevarra said.
“These corrupt officials sell importation permits to allow smuggled rice to enter the country,” he added.
According to the NFA’s De Guzman, the Vietnam rice “is meant to augment the current rice stocks which were badly affected due to the successive calamities that hit the country in 2013.”
“It will augment the NFA’s food security buffer which was depleted due to the abnormally huge requirement for Central Luzon,” De Guzman said.
Rice producer
Central Luzon is a premier rice-producing region, which produces enough rice to earn a rice sufficiency level of 138 percent. Its rice harvests represent 18 percent of the Philippines’ total rice production.
Nueva Ecija is the country’s top rice-producing province, with a yearly average yield of 1.13 million MT.
Tarlac, another rice producer in Central Luzon, has a yearly average yield of 470,000 MT.
Guevarra said rice cartels were now relying on import permits from NFA and the government importation scheme had given them a window of opportunity to continue smuggling rice into the country.
He said the new leadership at the customs bureau should review the legal framework that allowed “public sector monopoly” of rice importation. Anselmo Roque, Inquirer Central Luzon, with reports by Yolanda Sotelo, Inquirer Northern Luzon, and Delfin Mallari, Inquirer Southern Luzon