NBI starts to probe rice pilferage at CIP

CEBU, Philippines - The National Bureau of Investigation has started looking into the reported pilferage of over 200 sacks of smuggled rice seized by the Bureau of Customs at the Cebu International Port.

NBI-7 director Antonio Pagatpat has created a three-man team to conduct the investigation. The team is composed of lawyers Donavar Inesin and Bernard Dela Cruz and Special Investigator Teodoro Saavedra.

The investigation was prompted by the request of the Oriental Port and Allied Services Corporation (Opascor).

Pagatpat however said that even without a request, the NBI can look into the case in accordance with Section 1 of the Republic Act 157 which states that, “the Bureau of Investigation, under the Department of Justice shall undertake investigations of crimes and other offenses against the laws of the Philippines, upon its own initiative and as public interest may require”.

“May-authority kami na mag-imbistiga lalo na sa ganito na involved ang public interest,” Pagatpat said.

The NBI will coordinate with the other agencies involved such as the Bureau of Customs, Cebu Port Authority and Opascor. Pagatpat said that these agencies happen to have offices within the area where the seized shipment was placed.

Pagatpat however said that these agencies have been very cooperative with them. As of yesterday, the customs inventory team led by Arneth Manquiquis reported a total of 272 bags missing.  These missing rice shipment were in nine different container vans.

“A total of 272 bags of rice were missing,” said Manquiquis.

The nine container vans where the bags of rice were stolen from are part of the 1,069 container vans containing at least 500,000 bags of rice from Vietnam.

The total shipment was estimated at P1.2 billion. It was seized by customs in April.

Part of the shipment was already sold in public auction last month, giving the government P40,953,852 in income for the 26,013 bags. — (FREEMAN)