P400 million na halaga ng smuggled rice, nabisto sa Bulacan

Transcript

00:00 The smuggled rice was found in the Bureau of Customs' inspection in several warehouses in Bulacan

00:07 after President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. ordered to monitor the rice supply.

00:13 At one point, the rice was estimated to be worth more than P400 million pesos.

00:19 I'm Mel Alesmora in Detalle, Rice and Shine, Mela.

00:26 Meanwhile, the Bureau of Customs closed the four rice warehouses in Balagtas, Bulacan.

00:32 In the latest inspection of the agency,

00:36 Commissioner Bienvenido Rubio was the first to take charge of the camera,

00:40 while House Speaker Martin Romualdez was the first to inspect the thousands of bags of rice

00:46 that were hidden in the warehouses and smuggled.

00:50 The rice supply was estimated to be worth P431 million pesos.

00:57 Aside from this, there were also bags of rice found there.

01:00 All of these are suspected to be imported.

01:04 Based on the information we received,

01:06 these are imported rice that are being smuggled to the local market.

01:15 They earn more than the local rice.

01:21 The authorities gave the owners of the rice for 15 days to explain and present the documents,

01:29 because if not...

01:31 We will confiscate this.

01:34 If this is forfeit in favor of the government,

01:37 the instructions of our Commissioner is to donate this to the DSWD or to the Department of Agriculture for distribution.

01:48 If this is distributed to the local stores, I'm sure it will be of great help to our farmers.

01:54 Meanwhile, the affected rice mills...

01:56 We don't have hoarding. We release all of it daily.

02:02 If it's necessary, we will harvest the rice. If not, we will harvest it.

02:08 We will harvest it because it's easy to harvest.

02:10 But you said that you don't eat the rice?

02:13 No. We harvest it ourselves.

02:15 No.

02:17 This is the first time that President Ferdinand R. Marquez Jr. has ordered the BOC

02:23 to look into the smuggling of rice to rice warehouses in the country

02:27 to stop the rice hoarding and rice smuggling, which is considered as one of the reasons for the rise in the price of rice.

02:35 According to Speaker Romualdez, the President has the power to use the rice price in the Philippines, so he will take care of it.

02:44 We are monitoring it. We are inspecting it one by one.

02:48 Who imports, who hoards and who procures.

02:52 Because it's an economic sabotage. It's not available. It's unavailable.

02:57 So be careful. We are monitoring it.

03:00 The Filipino people's livelihood is divided into eating rice.

03:05 So when the authorities confirm, they will continue to monitor the proper supply of rice.

03:13 From here in Balagtas, Bulacan, Melalas Moras for the country.