P200,000 bounty offered for woman ‘rice smuggler’

MANILA, Philippines—After launching last January a campaign dubbed “Piso-piso ng mamamayan kontra smuggling (A peso from the people against smuggling),” a group of agricultural organizations on Monday announced a P200,000 bounty for information on the whereabouts of a woman implicated as a conduit of rice smugglers.

In a statement, Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (Sinag) said the reward money was for “any information leading to the location” of Leah Echeveria.

The bounty will be put under the care of the office of Sen. Cynthia Villar, chair of the Senate agriculture committee, which is investigating rice smuggling.

According to Sinag, Echeveria remains at large and has been evading the summons from the Senate. In the course of hearings on rice smuggling, representatives of farmers’ cooperatives accused Echeveria of using their organizations for rice smuggling.

Sinag said the Piso-piso campaign was aimed at raising reward money for witnesses who would come forward to locate and identify smugglers.

“We have raised almost P135,000 from individuals and groups within Sinag across Luzon,” said Ofociano Manalo, a rice farmer and one of the leaders of Sinag.

Other concerned citizens, many of whom prefer to remain anonymous, have contributed an additional P180,000 to the campaign, Manalo said.

“We realize the importance of identifying and prosecuting the smugglers who have been wreaking havoc on our livelihoods and the whole agriculture industry,” he added.

Sinag chair Rosendo So said that of the P315,000 raised so far, P200,000 was earmarked for information on Echeveria.

So said the rest of the money as well as future donations would be used as reward for information that would lead to the arrest of other suspected smugglers.

4 more cases

In a related development, Sinag last Friday filed in the Supreme Court four more administrative cases against Regional Trial Court (RTC) judges who had ordered the release of allegedly smuggled rice that the Bureau of Customs had seized because these had no import permits.

The group was seeking disciplinary action for “gross misconduct and knowingly rendering an unjust judgment” against Eutiquio L. Quitain of the Batangas RTC as well as Cicero Jurado and Maria Paz Reyes-Yson, both of the Manila RTC.

These brought to five the cases Sinag had filed against RTC judges, including the first one filed against Judge Emmanuel Carpio of the Davao City RTC.

Yson was named in two of the cases, which relate to shipments for two separate importers.

“We are spending resources and energy to file these cases so that smugglers will not use the local courts anymore to legalize their smuggling activities,” So said.

“This will also serve as a stern warning to those few magistrates who think that they can get away easily with rulings that benefit smugglers at the expense of the Filipino farmers and the local rice industry,” he added.—Ronnel W. Domingo

 

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