BBM says officials smuggle rice, so why aren’t they in prison?
Government officials are behind rice smuggling, President Bongbong Marcos admitted Monday.
So, who are they and why aren’t they in prison?
Rice smuggling is nonbailable, punishable with life imprisonment and fine of five times the contraband value. Same with rice hoarding, profiteering, cartelizing, dummying. All five are acts of economic sabotage.
BBM signed the Anti-Agricultural Sabotage Act on Sept. 26, 2024. He chairs the enforcement council. It includes the Depts. of Agriculture, Justice, Finance, Interior and Local Government, Transportation, Trade and Industry, Anti-Money Laundering Council and Philippine Competition Commission.
BBM disclosed the involvement of government officials in rice racketeering in his BBM Podcast, Episode 1, May 19:
“Ang opisyales ay spoiled. Basta import lang nang import. Tapos, ’yong importation ay illegal and legal. Nakita namin na ang pang-kontrol sa presyo ay ang smuggled na bigas. Kaya nagho-hoard.
“Isa sa una naming ginawa ay nag-raid ng warehouses. Ito ang pinakamalupit, bakit may ganito? Hindi na iniintindi, basta’t puro import.
“Dahil ang nag-i-ismuggle mga opisyal din ng gobyerno.
“Kumikita sila. O ‘di bakit nila papalitan? Sige, pasok lang sila nang pasok.
“Hindi nila iniintindi ang production. Hindi nila iniintindi ‘yong sistema. Hindi nila iniintindi ang presyo ng palay, ang presyo ng bigas, ang kikitain ng magsasaka.”
So again, why has no bureaucrat been charged?
Why has only a Chinese-Filipino couple, Tianding Cai and Maria Theresa Cai of Pacific Sealand Foods, been indicted on Dec. 14 for trafficking 21 cargo containers of frozen mackerel from China on Sept. 28?
The absence of indictee officials lends credence to reports that Customs bigwigs are behind rice smuggling. Their modus operandi is “palubog.” Favored importers declare only half their cargo, say, 100,000 tons instead of the real 200,000. Only that half is taxed – and only at 15 percent.
The other half is hidden – “nakalubog” in Customs parlance. Importers and Customs protectors make a killing. Investigative-broadcaster Ted Failon has been exposing that since last year.
BBM claimed he’s now focusing on rice production, after supposedly completing long-term irrigation works in his first three years in office. That’s why rice now retails for only P20 a kilo, as he promised during the 2022 presidential campaign.
When voters collected on that vow, BBM claimed that it was “only aspirational.” DA Sec. Francis Tiu Laurel repeated that alibi Jan. 16, 2024.
In truth, today’s P20 rice is not for the general public. It’s sold only in selected government outlets in poorest locales, to accredited elderly and indigents.
Throughout 2024 and first quarter 2025, consumers suffered P65 rice. Tiu Laurel forcibly brought it down to P48 by threatening market vendors – not smugglers, hoarders, profiteers, cartelists, dummies – with jail time.
The Rice Competitiveness Enhancement Program has P30 billion for 2025. But only half is available. The other P15 billion is Unprogrammed Appropriation, to be implemented only in case of government windfall or new loan. RCEP is supposed to cheapen seedlings, fertilizers, farm implements.
Deduct 20 percent administrative cost, and only P12-billion RCEP is left. Divide that by two million rice farmers and each will receive P6,000 price discounts for the year, or P500 a month. Big deal!
The Rice Tariffication Law of 2019 used to grant poor farmers P5,000 cash a year. Not anymore since December 2024, under an amended law.
Today, traders buy palay from farmers for only P13-P15 a kilo. A far cry from DA’s suggeste P20-P24, Tiu Laurel admitted Monday.
There’s no money to help them. BBM cut rice import tariffs last July from 35 to only 15 percent.
Government lost potential collection of P23 billion up to April 2025, lamented Raul Montemayor, Federation of Free Farmers national manager. Customs collected only P17 billion in those ten months, instead of P40 billion.
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Namfrel’s website reported 16,799,760 senatorial overvotes at 11:27 a.m., May 14.
Ex-DICT chief Eliseo Rio found it exactly divisible by 12, for a quotient of 1,399,980.
At 6:06 p.m. the next day, Namfrel updated the figure to 17,028,780 overvotes.
Again, Rio found it exactly divisible by 12, or a 1,419,065 quotient.
“Incredible, impossible, if the senatorial election result was not rigged,” Rio told Gotcha yesterday. “Likely, the automated election system software discarded 1,419,065 ballots as spoiled in increments of 12. That’s to eliminate unwanted candidates.”
Eight more anomalies occurred, said Atty. Alex Lacson of Alyansa ng Nagkaka-Isang Mamamayan. Foremost was that all 93,287 precinct counts were not transmitted directly to Namfrel, PPCRV and media transparency servers, but passed through Comelec – in breach of agreements. Comelec alone tallied the precinct results, then fed these to the so-called accredited partners.
All these will be exposed today at Max’s Quezon Memorial Circle, QC, 2-4 p.m.
Church Leaders for National Transformation will lead the event: Bishops Efraim Tendero, World Evangelical Alliance; Noel Pantoja, Philippine Council for Evangelical Churches; Roberto Gaa, Catholic Archdiocese of Novaliches; Colin Bagaforo, Caritas Philippines; Fathers Tony Labiao, Caritas and Catholic Educational Association of Caceres-Libmanan.
Plus, ANIM convenor Cap. Bobby Yap, along with retired generals and colonels, and civil society leaders.
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