Palace clears Alcala of rice cartel links

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang is absolving Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala for now of any involvement in a rice smuggling cartel in the country, an official said yesterday.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said over dzRB yesterday they would let the investigation take its course.

She said the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), under the Department of Justice, reopened the probe into the Senate committee report asking the DOJ 10 months ago to go after the rice smuggling syndicate allegedly led by David Tan.

But De Lima said on Friday the NBI still had no leads on Tan, who was tagged as one of the financiers of bogus cooperatives that cornered a huge chunk of the National Food Authority’s rice imports under the Aquino administration.

De Lima explained no one among the members of the alleged cooperatives was willing to cooperate in their investigation. She said the NBI opened an investigation but temporarily closed it after the agency failed to establish the identity and whereabouts of Tan and “Danny Ngo,” another alleged financier of the rice smuggling operation.

She said the NBI invited representatives from 24 cooperatives in the search for Tan and Ngo.

Most of the cooperatives sent representatives to the investigation, but some of the cooperatives turned out to be non-existent, De Lima said. She did not elaborate.

Hoping for results

Valte said they were aware that the investigation did not bear fruit despite the NBI’s diligent checking and probe of records but expressed hopes this time there would be positive results.

The rice smuggling issue cropped up during the time of resigned National Food Authority administrator Lito Banayo. The NFA is under Alcala.

Valte said the Palace reaction would depend on the supposed anomaly or controversy that a particular member of the official family was being linked to.

She said it was a bit “hypothetical” to talk about Alcala at this point.

“But in the past that we’ve dealt with cases like this, it depends...it is properly sifted through,” Valte said.

Alcala has appointed Orlan Calayag, a businessman from the United States, to replace Banayo, who resigned late last year to prepare for his congressional bid in the upcoming elections.

Calayag, who hails from Dolores, Quezon, is a longtime acquaintance of the DA chief.