Senate eyes contempt raps vs 20 people tagged in rice smuggling

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – The Senate wants to cite in contempt 20 people involved in the alleged rice smuggling at the Subic Bay Freeport after they refused to personally appear at a committee hearing Wednesday.

Senator Francis Pangilinan, chairman of the Senate committee on agriculture and food, told reporters after the hearing that there was a “clear pattern of non-cooperation and refusal” from all 26 personalities who were issued subpoenas.

“They are giving different reasons. It’s either they are still looking for a lawyer or they don’t want to appear because they don’t have a lawyer,” Pangilinan said.

“They are avoiding [appearing at the hearing],” he said. “Let’s not delay this, respect the subpoena. Don’t waste the time of the Senate,” Pangilinan added.

Of the 26 personalities that were issued subpoenas, 11 had sent letters explaining why they cannot appear, four had sent only their lawyers, five had not responded at all, another five were not able to receive the subpoena.

One of the alleged rice traders who was previously arrested and detained in the Senate, Magdangal Diego Maralit Bayani III, was present at the hearing but refused to provide information.

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said that they want to find out who is behind the attempt to smuggle P450-million worth of Indian rice through Subic and if the companies involved were dummy corporations only.

He previously disclosed in a privilege speech last July 25, 2012 that there was a shipment of 420,000 bags of rice equivalent to 21,000 metric tons from India that had been unloaded at the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.

Protik Guha, believed to be the source of the shipment in Subic, had already been issued an arrest order by the Senate. He was however out of the country.

Several local traders were then suspected of attempting to smuggle the rice out of Subic to sell it in the Philippine market.

“We want to know who these trading companies and cooperatives are, if they are real or dummy companies used to get allocation for rice imports to avoid paying taxes,” Enrile said.

“We will file criminal cases against them if they are using dummy companies,” he added.