NFA officials admit papers on warehouse inconsistent

Officials of the National Food Authority yesterday admitted inconsistencies in the documents they had issued about the warehouse in Mandaue City that the National Bureau of Investigation raided last April 2.

The admissions have raised serious doubts and suspicions on the authenticity of the alleged registration documents of the warehouse that stored rice allegedly without a license.

NFA regional director Danilo Bonabon and provincial manager Ramon Astilla were called to testify during the continuance of the hearing of the motion to quash the search warrant issued against the warehouse no. 52 at Castilex compound in barangay Cabancalan, Mandaue City, where almost 30,000 sacks of imported rice were found by the NBI during the raid.

Bonabon confirmed he issued to the NBI two certifications on April 1 stating that the warehouse, allegedly owned by former Cebu Ports Authority general manager Mariano Martinez Jr., was not licensed to store rice grains and that Martinez was unlicensed to engage in warehousing.

The first certification did not specify the warehouse number so it was returned by the NBI demanding for such information, said Bonabon, adding that he signed all the two certifications on that same day upon the recommendation of his licensing division chief Jaime Ang.

Last April 3, Astilla issued another certification that contradicted the one that Bonabon earlier issued. Astilla, in his certification that Ang also prepared, already stated that the warehouse was licensed and registered under Jolli Trading International, a company partly owned by the family of Regan King, who owned up to the stacks of rice found in the warehouse.

Bonabon admitted in court that he did not bother to verify anymore the certification before signing it because he relied on Ang's recommendation. He said that he only knew later that the warehouse is registered when the issue was made public.

What drew suspicions on the authenticity of the alleged registration documents of the warehouse was the testimony of Astilla that King applied for the registration of the warehouse last January 28, after which Astilla and his team immediately inspected the warehouse. However, the lease contract between King and Martinez was only signed last February 22.

On cross-examination, NBI regional director Medardo de Lemos questioned how could the NFA possibly conducted the inspection of the warehouse when it was not yet under lease.

King, in a press conference late yesterday afternoon, explained that the signing of the lease contract happened after they applied for registration because initially it was just a verbal agreement considering that his family is also a part owner of the warehouse.

It was only in February that he decided to make the lease agreement formal because the volume of his rice importation was already big that he thought it would already be unfair for their partners if he will continue to use it for free. King said he then asked Martinez to prepare a lease contract so that he will pay for the rentals of the warehouse.

King's lawyer, Gerardo Carillo, argued that what the NBI did was pure and simple harassment to his client. He accused the NBI of not “doing its homework” by failing to verify first the actual occupant of the warehouse before conducting the raid.

King, for his part, blamed the NFA for issuing a certification that the warehouse was not licensed, which was the basis of the NBI in applying for a search warrant. “Palpak gyud sa NFA sila maoy dapat niingon nga registered gyud,” King told reporters.

Had the NFA said that the warehouse was registered, the NBI would not have applied for the search warrant and conducted the raid, said King. – Fred P. Languido/RAE