Camp Crame ordered probe into alleged rice hoarding: police exec

By LITO RULONA
and NITZ ARANCON
Correspondents .

A POLICE official yesterday revealed that there was an order from Camp Crame for the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office (Cocpo) to investigate the alleged hoarding of rice here.

The revelation was made by Cocpo spokesman Supt. Mardy Hortillosa II during a meeting of the city council’s committee on trade, commerce and industry.

The committee, chaired by Councilor George Goking, has also started looking into the city’s rice supply after the National Bureau of Investigation found bags of rice being held at the Mindanao International Container Terminal in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental, on Friday.

Hortillosa said Camp Crame issued a memorandum for Cocpo to start a coordinated investigation into alleged rice hoarding here.

He said the Cocpo has started gathering intelligence information and is monitoring the rice supply situation in the city.

Before the committee, National Bureau of Investigation agent Pastor Oran said the bureau would pursue an investigation despite the assurance by the National Food Authority (NFA) that there was no rice hoarding or smuggling here.

Lawyer Marvin Mison, assistant Customs collector here, also assured that the customs bureau did not deliberately hold bags of rice at the Tagoloan port.

Mison confirmed the NBI’s report that it found 79 container vans of imported rice that were not released to the market from the Tagoloan port.

Mison said the 79 were among the 500 container vans of imported rice that were in the port at that time.

But Mison claimed that the tons of rice were not deliberately held, explaining that these were not released immediately because of “congestion” or work backlog.

He said there was an order from Customs Commisssioner Isidro Lapeña to make sure that all shipments be inspected using xay machines as an anti-smuggling measure.

“Because of that order na-congest ang port of Tagoloan. Unya, we are using only one xay machine. So, napondok siya  natapok ba,” Mison asserted. “There was a delay but not because we intentionally delayed  it.”

NBI’s Oran said investigators would need to validate assertions and assurances, and so, “we are still conducting further investigation and verification [to determine] if there was indeed hoarding in the region.”

Oran said NBI agents inspected the port last week based on information that there were container vans of rice being held inside. The information, he said, turned out to be correct.

The NBI, he said, would continue monitoring the rice trade in the city, and would conduct more surprise inspections.

“We will enforce the law if there are rice traders found to be into illegal activities like smuggling and hoarding,” Oran said.

Ma. Celeste Gaabucayan, NFA provincial manager, assured the committee that there was no commercial rice hoarding or smuggling in the city.

Gaabucayan dismissed suspicions of rice hoarding and smuggling here, saying inspections made by the NFA would show local rice traders were following government rules.

Gaabucayan said the commercial rice prices rose because the NFA rice shortage, a problem she blamed on the NFA Council’s decision to disallow rice importation last year.

She said the NFA administrator sought the Council’s green light as early as October 2017 but the NFA Council turned it down, resulting in the NFA rice shortage this year.

Gaabucayan said the NFA Council subsequently allowed the rice importation but only after the shortage became evident. The NFA importation of rice started only this June 30.

“Fortunate kaayo dinhi sa atong region kay on time ang arrival sa atong imported rice  kay niadtong June kita gyud ang unang naka-unload  ug naka-distribute dayon ta sa atong mga retailers,” said Gaabucayan.

Cogon market alone, with six NFA rice outlets, receive 250 sacks of rice each week, she said. There are NFA outlets, too, at the Carmen and Puerto markets, and different Misamis Oriental towns.

NFA rice, according to Gaabucayan, is priced at P32 a kilo.

Gaabucayan said the commercial rice prices are expected to go down next month.

“Gani nagsugod na man ug kana-og ang presyo sa bugas sa Bukidnon,” she said.