13 Caraga men face raps over rice smuggling mess

BUTUAN CITY — The National Bureau of Investigation’s Caraga office filed yesterday charges against 13 people, mostly law enforcers, with the Office of the Ombudsman in connection with the July 12 disappearance of a vessel carrying smuggled rice from the Lumbocan wharf here.

Among those named as respondents in the 11-page charge sheet were Senior Superintendent Efren Anggo, head of Task Force Racer of the Caraga police; Butuan police chief Felix Gonzales; Butuan police precinct head Senior Inspector Reynaldo Batoon; Customs collectors Diego Odchemar Jr. and Jose Patriana Sr.; Philippine Ports Authority official Edgardo Tidalgo, police Maritime Group head Inspector Adriano Bustillo Jr., and Senior Chief Petty Officer Abelardo Hernandez of the Coast Guard.

Also charged were five Butuan policemen, namely, PO2 Jeffrey Humaman, PO1 Nestor Almeda, SPO4 Domingo Lucino Jr., PO3 Ignacio Espina and PO2 Jessie Doce.

The NBI-Caraga probe team said the respondents "(failed) to act in unity and fulfill their sworn functions and responsibilities" to protect the interest of the government in the "escape" of MV Rodeo.

The panel was composed of NBI assistant regional director Reynaldo Esmeralda, supervising agent Gerry Perdido and special investigator Benjamin Magtoto.

"Definitely, they all must answer how MV Rodeo escaped in broad daylight while anchored at the Lumbocan port in the afternoon of July 12," Esmeralda said.

He added: "It was not so easy for us because some of them are our friends but truth and the rule of law must prevail."

Perdido said the bungled rice smuggling operation cheated the government of more than P9 million in revenues.

Laboratory tests by the National Food Authority showed that the smuggled rice, totaling 17,000 sacks and valued at P18.7 million, either came from Vietnam or Thailand.

Esmeralda said their investigation will continue, focusing on who owned the smuggled rice and its consignees here, why the nine trucks hired by the rice smugglers and seized by policemen were released, and how more than 600 sacks of the seized rice were pilfered.

Butuan Mayor Leonides Theresa Plaza had requested the NBI to investigate the rice smuggling mess, saying she had lost confidence in the Caraga police.