PITC: King rice shipment is legal

The Philippine International Trading Corporation has vouched for the legality of the almost 30,000 sacks of rice shipment that were held by the Bureau of Customs and later seized by the National Bureau of Investigation and National Food Authority for having been stored in an alleged unlicensed warehouse in Mandaue City.

PITC managing director Mario Leygo yesterday said that the shipment was covered by their import allocation for 2007 which was granted to the different farmers’ cooperative nationwide. He explained that under the Department of Agriculture-NFA-PITC rice importation program, farmers cooperatives are given allocations for them to import.

He said that cooperatives that do not have the financial capacity to make the importation will look for financiers as partners.  The cooperative will provide the allocation from the PITC while the financier provides the capital.

Leygo said this is what happened to the imported rice held by the Bureau of Customs and lately seized at the warehouse in Cabancalan Mandaue City.

Leygo also promised to provide the media copies of the profiles of the cooperatives and who owns the import allocations as soon as formal request is filed with his office. He assured that the cooperatives that imported the shipment exist contrary to initial reports that they were bogus.  

King’s shipment was held by the BOC since Holy Week on suspicion that it is undervalued. It was ordered for an examination, prompting the BOC to allow its temporary release for inventory purposes at the warehouse where it was raided by the NBI.

The custody of the rice, however, was back with the BOC following the order of the court. Regional Trial Court Executive Judge Fortunato de Gracia ordered Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service in Cebu to take physical custody of the rice but granted the NBI with unlimited monitoring authority.

The court has yet to rule on the pending motions filed by customs to intervene in the case and their motion to quash the search warrant.

Customs district collector Ricardo Belmonte said that they have exclusive jurisdiction over the shipment because it has not yet been released from their custody.

King also filed the same motion seeking to quash the search warrant claiming that the raid was baseless because they have all the necessary documents to show that the importation was legal and that the warehouse was licensed.  — Fred P. Languido/BRP