Gov’t agencies to join forces in rice smuggling probe

By: Tetch Torres-Tupas - 11 years ago

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MANILA, Philippines—Government agencies and its law enforcement arm may join forces to conduct a thorough investigation on the alleged rice smuggling activities in the country, newly appointed head of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Virgilio Mendez told reporters Wednesday.

Mendez told reporters that he had met with Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala Tuesday and discussed the smuggling issue.

“That [meeting] is in relation with the possible joint efforts of the DA (Department of Agriculture), DOJ (Department of Justice), NBI and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) in so far as smuggling of rice is concerned,” Mendez said.

“We will be collaborating with each other. We cannot perform the job without the cooperation of the other agency,” he added.

At the same time, Mendez said whether Davidson Bangayan is David Tan is no longer an issue.

“As we have mentioned earlier, we have been consistent with our position that the identity of Davidson or David is no longer an issue for us. We have enough evidence to prove that he is the one and the same person. On the identity issue, settled na kami doon,” Mendez said adding that their focus now is the rampant rice smuggling.