Supreme Court stops release of illegally imported rice

By: Tetch Torres-Tupas - 11 years ago

The Supreme Court building in Manila. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–The Supreme Court stopped the implementation of the Manila Regional Trial Court’s order allowing the release of 189,540 bags of rice that arrived last year in Manila port without the proper documents.

In a resolution released Wednesday, the high court en banc said the restraining order is “effective immediately and continuing until further orders from this Court.”

The high court issued the resolution following a petition filed by the Office of the Solicitor General on behalf of the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

Aside from stopping the release of the “hot rice,” the high court also prohibited Danilo Galang of St. Hildegard Grains Enterprises and Ivy Souza of Bold Bidder Marketing from “undertaking any and all shipments with respect to the rice shipments…”

Aside from Galang and Souza, other consignees that imported the rice via the Port of Manila in 2013 without import permits are Starcraft Trading Corp., Intercontinental Grains, Medaglia De Oro Trading, and Silent Royalty Marketing.

But the BOC ordered a seizure of the imported rice for lack of the necessary permits.

Galang filed a petition with the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) to question the seizure.

Galang, in his petition before the lower court, also pointed out that the Philippines is a signatory of the World Trade Organization General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (WTO-GATT), which had lifted the country’s special treatment on quantitative rice restrictions effective June 30, 2012. The lower court ruled in his favor.

The BOC and the DA went to the Supreme Court and questioned the order of Manila Judge Cicero Jurado.

In a 78-page petition for certiorari, the DA and BOC through Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza urged the high court to uphold the validity of National Food Authority Memorandum Circular No. AO-2K13-03-003 and the NFA Council resolution No. 670-2013 requiring rice imports to be covered by import permits despite the lifting of the World Trade Organization’s special treatment on quantitative restrictions for rice last June 30, 2012.

Government lawyers said Judge Cicero Jurado Jr. abused its discretion when he issued his orders dated Jan. 23, 2014 and Feb. 27, 2014 and his amended order dated Feb. 28, 2014 that stopped the BOC and the district of collectors for the ports of Manila, North Harbor (Manila International Container Port) and South Harbors from alerting, seizing, and holding not only the rice shipments of St. Hildegard Grains Enterprises but also of Bold Bidder Marketing and General Merchandise owned by Ivy Souza, the original consignee of the rice shipments.

Jardeleza said only member states may bring suits in relation to any violation of the agreement and not a private entity.

He also insisted that the authority of the NFA to require import permits for rice importations did not cease upon the expiration of the special treatment.

The government noted that the Philippines had already submitted a third revision of its request for waiver relating to special treatment for rice of the Philippines.

Jardeleza noted that since they requested for a waiver, nine interested WTO member states have initiated negotiations with the Philippine government.

“Currently, the Philippines’ formal request for a waiver of its WTO obligation or the extension of the special treatment on rice importation remains pending with the WTO. To date, the country’s request for extension has not been denied,” the Solicitor General said.