Warehouses to get 7 days to present rice import permits

GENERAL TRIAS, Cavite, Philippines — President Marcos wants to shorten from 15 days to only seven days the period given to owners of raided rice warehouses to submit documents proving the legality of their importation.

In remarks during the distribution of confiscated smuggled rice to 1,200 beneficiaries of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program or 4Ps at the General Trias Sports Park yesterday, Marcos explained it took time to transfer the confiscated rice from the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to the Department of Social Welfare and Development due to a provision under the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act which gives suspected smugglers 15 days to appeal the seizure of their stock.

Marcos concurrently heads the Department of Agriculture (DA).

Under Section 114 of the CMTA, “Any party adversely affected by a decision or omission of the Bureau pertaining to an importation, exportation or any other legal claim shall have the right to appeal within 15 days from receipt of the questioned decision or order.”

“We have to wait because before we seize items, the importer needs to prove within 15 days that the importation is legal. So it takes a while because we have to wait for 15 days,” he said in Filipino.

The sacks of 25-kilogram rice are part of the 42,180 sacks of smuggled rice recently confiscated by the BOC-Port of Zamboanga.

The sacks of seized smuggled rice were eventually donated to DSWD after the importers failed to present legal documents for the shipment.

“Now we are trying to reduce the 15 days into seven days, because if you’re a legal importer, all documents are with you. If (authorities) asked for it, you can give it right away,” Marcos said.

“I said something might happen to those (smuggled) rice. So I told