Court voids NBI warrant vs. rice

The shortage of rice in Cebu may soon be alleviated the moment thousands of sacks of rice imported from Vietnam start flooding the market following yesterday’s removal by the court of legal impediments covering the shipment.

Regional Trial Court Judge Fortunato de Gracia Jr., acting on a motion by the importer of the rice shipment, quashed a search warrant it earlier issued the National Bureau of Investigation, paving the way for its agents to raid a warehouse in Mandaue City last April 2 and seize the shipment.

The shipment consisted of more than 30,000 sacks of rice imported by Jolli Traders International, Inc. and housed in a warehouse in Mandaue City leased by Regan King of Jolli Traders from Mariano Martinez while awaiting inventory by the Bureau of Customs for the payment of duties.

The Bureau of Customs itself also asked the court to quash the same search warrant, claiming the court intervened in its functions as sole custodian of the rice as it underwent inventory.

De Gracia, while granting the motion of Jolli Traders to quash the warrant, at the same time rejected the Customs motion, saying its imputation of wrongdoing on the part of the court had no basis as BOC has custody over the rice only for purposes of its taxing duties and that the issuance of the warrant in fact strengthened the position of Customs over the goods.

After hearing the case, de Gracia said the court was able to establish the fact that while Martinez had no license to import rice, he was not the importer in this case but King..

Also, de Gracia said, while Martinez was in fact the owner of the warehouse where the questioned shipment was housed, he already leased the same to King and therefore was not a party to the transactions, thus rendering the basis for the NBI action without merit.

The NBI had anchored its actions on the information, which the court hearings eventually established to be false, that the importation was illegal because Martinez did not have a license to import rice and that his warehouse was not registered with the NFA.

But as court found, while Martinez did not have a license to import rice, the fact did not matter because he was not the importer but King. Likewise, the NBI information that the warehouse was unregistered was borne out to be false because Jolli Traders registered it with the NFA as soon as it started leasing the warehouse from Martinez.

De Gracia said it has now been established that all these facts had pre-existed prior to his issuance of the search warrant applied for by the NBI but that “ wittingly or unwittingly, these crucial and material information was not made available to the court “ at the time.

Had the court been fully appraised of these existing facts, it would not have acted in the way it did, the judge said in his order.

In granting the motion of Jolli Traders, Judge de Gracia said “ search warrant 1803-04-02-08-15 is voided and nullified and declared without any efficacious legal effect. All orders issued consequent of such writ is lifted and rendered unenforceable. The custody and possession of the rice stocks shall revert to any person or entity who can prove proprietary rights subject to regulatory rules appurtenant to such goods and enterprise imposed by the National Foods Authority and the payment of correct customs duties. “

King claims he has already advanced payment of a portion of the duties and will pay the rest as soon as the Customs inventory is finished.

With this development, it is anticipated that the rice shipment, freed of incumbrances, will soon hit the market and help ease the shortage that local officials are now scrambling to find a solution to. (/JST)