Opening of rice shipment today

CEBU, Philippines - Bureau of Customs deputy commissioner Danilo Lim will lead the opening today of the first batch of over a thousand container vans that believed to contain smuggled rice.

Earlier, the BOC-Port of Cebu under district collector Edward dela Cuesta foiled an attempt to smuggle into the country suspected rice shipment worth P1.2 billion.

Arneth Von Manquiquis, assistant chief of the Customs Intelligence Investigation Service, said yesterday that they will have to determine how many of the 1,200 container vans will be opened today.

Initially, she said, around 50 container vans will be viewed.

The suspected rice shipment from Vietnam arrived in Cebu from March 22 to April 3.

Dela Cuesta said the first batch of the shipment that comprised 300 container vans was already forfeited in favor of the government after no import entry was filed.

On March 22, the first batch arrived at the Cebu port and under the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines, an importer is given 30 days to file an import entry.

“So tapos na ang grace period nang first batch, so we will open na tomorrow,” dela Cuesta said.

Dela Cuesta said that by next week another batch of the shipment will be opened.

Since the shipment is under alert, it is now being guarded by BOC-Enforcement and Security Services to ensure it won’t leave the port. —LPM (FREEMAN)