THE LOCAL POLICE, NBI and the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group are cautioning rice traders to refrain from hoarding rice because the government is now relentlessly running after them.

The said warehouse is allegedly owned by a certain Jose Ty, according to Dominic Kabigting, head of the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG) in Western Mindanao.

Aside from the bags of rice, around 600 empty sacks of NFA rice were seized. “This will prove that there was really a re-sacking activity made of NFA rice and convert it into a commercial rice readily available in the local market with a very high price”, Kabigting said.

Accordingly the said warehouse is no longer owned by Ty and was sold to a certain Julieto Monding, who later on has claimed ownership of the said warehouse.

Monding tried to bribe the raiding team in the amount of P20,000.00, but the PASG ignored the offer and filed charges of bribery attempt against the owner.

Over the weekend, Atty. Moises Tamayo of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has been closely monitoring activities of rice traders to ensure rice hoarding is prevented.

Harold Ybañez, NFA Provincial Manager has maintained that no rice hoarding is happening in the province of Zamboanga del Sur even as he said that the causes of the high price of rice in the market are expensive farm inputs and striker-wholesalers coming from non-rice producing areas.

Last update : 10-05-2008 16:28

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