Last year, according to an official of the Bureau of Customs, an estimated 50,000 tons of rice were smuggled into the country every week. This detail came up at the Senate hearing yesterday on rice smuggling.
Complaints about rice smuggling and manipulation of supply and prices have cropped up several times in recent years. Certain government officials have been implicated and raids have been conducted on warehouses. But no one has ever been sent to prison for rice smuggling or price and supply manipulation.
These days those implicated in rice smuggling are arguing that there is no such thing. Davao City’s trigger-happy Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has promised to kill rice smuggling kingpin David Tan – but first the government must establish the real identity of Tan. With no clarity in the accusations, rumors swirl of influential individuals protecting the smuggling operations.
While those rumors might be false, the involvement of Customs personnel is certain. Smuggling, especially on the scale described at the Senate, cannot thrive without someone at Customs looking the other way. If Customs officials can trace the amount of rice smuggled weekly, surely it’s not impossible to trace those who are involved.
In the past year, the Bureau of Customs has been rocked by sweeping changes of its top management. Can a new team make a difference? Only if new faces are accompanied by a new, improved and transparent system of processing shipments – one that drastically cuts red tape and opportunities for BOC personnel to demand facilitation fees from those doing business with the bureau. And only if the new faces are prepared to do battle with the biggest smugglers and any influential individual protecting them.
Ruffy Biazon complained about these individuals before he left the BOC but did not name names. Unless these protectors are unmasked or stopped, any probe into smuggling will be ineffectual, and all types of contraband will freely enter the country. Including rice.