BOC files four agri-smuggling cases vs. rice importers following Bulacan warehouse raid – Presidential Communications Office

The Bureau of Customs (BOC) said that it filed four agricultural smuggling cases on Friday, September 29, against the rice importers who were allegedly connected with the warehouse in Bulacan that was previously raided, an official said on Saturday.

“The Bureau of Customs Bureau Action Team Against Smuggling (BATAS), that’s the anti-smuggling arm of the Bureau of Customs, nakapag-file po kami ng four cases, particularly po ito iyong sa rice,” said lawyer William Balayo, the acting Director of BOC’s Legal Service.

“Ang particular factual backdrop po nito, ito po iyong mga ni-raid noong August 24 sa Bulacan and pardon me po kung hindi ko mapapangalanan iyong mga akusado. Nonetheless po, we are happy to state that ito pong pinaylan (file) po namin ng cases. Tatlo po dito ay iyong economic sabotage,” he said.

While the three cases are considered large-scale, one case was not able to meet the P10-million threshold and was degraded to a violation of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA) although it also falls under agricultural product smuggling, rice in particular, Balayo explained.

Balayo expressed hope that the public will understand that the BOC, under the leadership of Commissioner Bienvenido Rubio, is trying its best to stop all kinds of smuggling, particularly rice smuggling.

“Kasi talagang pahirap po iyong rice smuggling dito po sa ating bansa. And lalo na din po na hindi po namin trabaho talaga iyong hoarding, iyong paghuhuli po ng hoarding, pero sa pagbubukas po natin ng mga bodega nakikita po natin ngayon, Sir, iyong mga bigas na sa tingin namin ay baka hino-hoard po,” he said.

“And once na nakakita po kami ng ganiyan, we coordinate with the appropriate government agencies kagaya po ng NBI, kagaya po ng DTI and the PACC para sila po ang mag-file ng cases for hoarding. Sana po malinaw iyon na ang Bureau of Customs po ay hanggang sa anti-smuggling lang po; wala po kami sa hoarding.”

In the same forum, lawyer Marlon Agaceta, the chief of staff of the Customs Commissioner, said there are four pending letters of authority (LOA) implemented against four warehouses related to rice importation.

For the two importers, the deadline for submission of