‘Seized rice US loan to RP’

The rice imports stored in Batangas warehouses are owned by the Philippine government and were not seized, contrary to reports.

The shipment was a commodity loan granted by the US government under its Public Law 480 to the Philippine government, represented by the National Food Authority (NFA) and the National Agricultural and Fisheries Council.

In a statement, Bulk Handlers said the rice imports, in fact, are supposed to be auctioned off today, with most of the bidders coming from the Confederation of Grains Association, which reports claimed was the complainant.

Bulk Handlers said it was only tasked to offload the rice from the vessel, put it on trucks and transport it to various warehouses before the bidding.

"The shipment was huge and the NFA would have paid demurrage if we could not unload the rice immediately. But we did our job efficiently and as a result, saved NFA a lot of money," it said.

Bulk Handlers said rice importation is a controversial issue and it was just caught in the middle.

Under PL 480, the US government offers agricultural products to various countries as a soft loan.