Coast Guard in Bicol securing Vietnamese ship with smuggled rice

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) in Bicol has been securing the Vietnamese ship that carries an estimated P200-million worth of suspected smuggled rice that recently entered the waters of Albay province.

PCG Bicol district commander Commodore Joel Garcia yesterday said that they have received intelligence information that the Vietnamese vessel M/V Minh Tuan 68 arrived last Sept. 2 with a cargo of illegally imported rice.

Based on the cargo manifest, the ship reportedly carried 4,700 metric tons of rice with value estimated at between P180 million to P200 million, but the quantity of the cargo has yet to be verified.

“The PCG has been providing security in order not to allow the vessel to unload the rice since the ship captain failed to present an import permit document from the Department of Agriculture (DA),” said Garcia.

He said the ship was not allowed to dock in Legaspi, Albay and has remained in the anchorage area.

There were reportedly 16 crewmen on board, all of them Vietnamese.

“The Vietnamese ship M/V Minh Tuan came from Ho Chi Minh. The shipper is a Vietnamese company… The consignees are one from Palawan, one from Bulacan and one from Pampanga so why are they going to Albay? Why did they not directly go to these provinces where the cosignees are located,” Garcia said.

PCG and Bureau of Customs (BOC) personnel in Legaspi City boarded the ship Friday evening and secured the foreign vessel.

They have asked the Customs broker to appear but as of yesterday the broker has not shown up.

The BOC Legaspi office has ordered the Customs broker to appear and present the necessary documents by Monday before noon.

“If the Customs broker cannot submit the document, the BOC would issue a warrant of seizure and detention (WSD). The PCG and the BOC would implement it and once we have seized (the rice), we would conduct an inventory,” Garcia said.