TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines — At least 100 sacks of rice the other day were found rotting inside the compound of the damaged and abandoned office of the Bureau of Customs in this city.
The discovery of the stocks of rotten rice came after passers-by, including go-vernment workers near the area, complained of the stinking odor from the place.
Initially, there were suspicions that the rice was part of the donations intended for Yolanda victims last year, but BoC-Port Operations chief Paulino Cabello Jr. yesterday denied it, adding that the stocks were already at the area before Yolanda came.
Cabello said the sacks of rice were not donations from any international sources or non-government organizations but were smuggled items confiscated by BoC operatives sometime in 2013.
“No. These were not donations for Yolanda victims. There was a warrant of seizure and detention, and a case against the alleged consignee here in the city is still going on,” he said, without disclosing the source of the allegedly smuggled rice.
Because of the storm surge when Yolanda hit Eastern Visayas, the sacks of rice earlier placed in a container van had been affected prompting Cabello to request the Customs commissioner in Manila to allow the local office to bury the rotting stocks.
The commissioner eventually approved such request but the problem now is that the City Environment and Natural Resources Office has yet to answer the BoC notice on where to bury the rotting rice.
“We are just waiting for the answer of the City ENRO, because our side of the BoC is ready to dispose these items. It is the ENRO that will identify the site for burying the rotting rice,” said Cabello.
Cabello further noted that the rice was not from the National Food Authority and that it was commercial rice.
The warehouse of the NFA office in Leyte is at the back of the compound of the BoC, which office for its part was temporarily abandoned after it was destroyed by Yolanda. The BoC is presently renting a building at the downtown area of Tacloban.
Jennifer Paa, social marketing officer of the Department of Social Work and Development, in a separate interview also denied the department had sacks of rotten rice at the Port Area, or at the BoC compound. She said the DSWD’s warehouses for rice are in Apitong and Abucay districts of Tacloban.
All of the DSWD’s stocks of rice and donations from other agencies and INGOs were already distributed before to the victims of Yolanda and Ruby, said Paa.
Paa added that other stocks of rice for storm Seniang victims continued to arrive in the city recently and some of these were earlier distributed to beneficiaries in Samar provinces. (FREEMAN)