Police, NFA men seize "re-bagged" rice from Iloilo house

CEBU, Philippines- Authorities on Monday evening swooped down on a house of a retailer suspected to be re-bagging NFA rice into commercial rice.

Members of the Jaro Police Station and the National Food Authority confiscated 55 sacks of rice from the house of Nemia Masuecos at Landheights Subdivison in Jaro district of Iloilo City.

Seventeen of the 55 were NFA-labeled sacks while the 38 sacks were "commercial" rice.

According to Rolino Lamojer of NFA-Iloilo, Masuecos is a licensed NFA retailer. He also confirmed to have released 50 sacks of NFA rice to Masueco's son a few days ago.

Senior Inspector Herbert Ballego, Jaro Police chief, clarified that the visit at Masuecos' house was not a raid. "We received an information about the alleged re-bagging of NFA rice and we just inspected the house for verification," he added.

During the actual inspection, Ballego said no one was caught repacking the NFA rice into the commercial sacks.

Only the house caretaker was present during the visit. "We could not also make any arrest. It's for the NFA to confirm whether the rice at commercially-labeled sacks are government-subsidized rice," Ballego said.

Last month, the National Bureau of Investigation-6 raided a warehouse in Leganes, Iloilo with 1,047 sacks of "repacked" rice from the NFA.