Importer, supermart deny smuggling rap

A rice importer denied on Thursday being part of a smuggling ring and ratting out the owner of Puregold Price Club Inc. and S&R Superstores as a smuggler.

Conrado Ibañez, the importer, said the allegation that he was a smuggler and had colluded with Puregold and S&R owner Lucio Co was a last desperate attempt to make erstwhile Bureau of Customs chief Angelito Alvarez look good.

“Our goods are all legal and have permits. I don’t know why they are doing this. Are they doing this to save face?” Ibañez said in an interview.

Puregold statement

In a statement to the Inquirer on Thursday, Puregold Price Club Inc. “vehemently” denied the accusations in the news article that appeared in the paper on Sept. 15.

“We would like to reiterate that all business transactions of Puregold Price Club Inc. are based on completely legal and aboveboard procedures and that it complies with all applicable laws and regulations,” Baby Gerlie Sacro, Puregold corporate secretary, said in the statement.

“In fact, Puregold does not import any goods to the Philippines and all of its merchandise are locally sourced. We have recently received certificates from the Bureau of Customs that state that Puregold Price Club Inc. and its stockholders do not have any outstanding accounts with the BOC, nor are they the subject of any pending investigations or cases related to the importation of goods or any non-payment or underpayment of any tax duties,” the statement said.

Legal action

Ibañez, president of Intercontinental Grains, said he would take legal action against the customs officials who accused him of criminal acts.

Alvarez was replaced on Thursday by former Rep. Ruffy Biazon, a party mate of President Aquino in the Liberal Party who lost his senatorial bid in the May 2010 elections.

Ibañez said he was not arrested by customs agents, contrary to an earlier news report quoting Simeon Capparozo Jr. of the BOC intelligence division.

Capparozo, he said, had questioned him about his company’s business.

“Mr. Capparozo came to my office last Monday and asked me if I was a supplier of imported Thailand rice to Puregold. I told him ‘yes’ and not just of Puregold but other supermarkets as well like SM Hypermart, Savemore, Shopwise and Rustan’s,” Ibañez said.

“We even supply rice to the Thai embassy,” he added.

Aside from Ibañez, the BOC said it was filing charges against Jimmy Go of Uni-Nexus Trading. According to the BOC, both men were believed to have knowledge of imported cargo in numerous container vans that vanished from Manila ports early this year.

‘Don’t know him’

Ibañez also denied telling Capparozo that Co had changed the delivery dates for the goods supposedly going to Puregold before Ibañez’s warehouse was raided on Sept. 9.

“How can I tell him anything about Lucio Co, I don’t even know the Puregold owner personally,” Ibañez said.

Ibañez’s warehouse on Tomas Morato Street, Quezon City, was one of those raided by the BOC last week. No goods were seized from it, however.

According to Capparozo, the warehouse allegedly held smuggled rice and sugar from Thailand and Vietnam that were sold to Puregold and S&R.

The BOC also raided the Uni-Nexus warehouse in Caloocan City where about P50-million worth of goods was confiscated. The agency said Ibañez’s products were found in that warehouse too.

Ibañez said the BOC report of smuggled rice in the Uni-Nexus warehouse was false.

“The BOC is apparently looking for the unaccounted for container vans missing from December 2010 up to February 2011, yet our company started operations in April 2011 and our importation started only in May 2011,” he pointed out.

“We were only leasing space from Uni-Nexus,” he said.