President Rodrigo Duterte, angry over the disappearance of 23,000 sacks of smuggled rice in Zamboanga, has suspended two officials from the National Food Authority and the Bureau of Customs, the Palace said Thursday.
Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said Zamboanga Port District Collector Lyceo Martinez and Customs Police District Commander Filomeno Salazar were placed under preventive suspension as the government investigates how the smuggled rice disappeared.
“The President was visibly upset with the missing 23,015 sacks of apprehended smuggled rice in Zamboanga City,” said Roque.
“The President has ordered an immediate and thorough investigation of this incident, and instructions were given for both the NFA OIC and Customs commissioner to immediately place on preventive suspension individuals who may be part of this scheme,” he added.
Roque said the suspension would prevent the two officials from tampering with the evidence or influencing the investigation.
On Monday, Customs and the National Bureau of Investigation agents recovered 5,000 sacks of rice at the Basulta Traders Corp. warehouse. Meanwhile, 3,000 sacks of rice at Suterville warehouse and 8,000 sacks at Kasanyagan Compound warehouse in Sta. Catalina were recovered the following day.
Roque quoted Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña saying the bureau has already sent a team to Zamboanga to investigate the incident.
“The President was furious because how do you lose 23,000 sacks? I mean, it’s incredible,” Roque said.
Roque said Customs officials may have connived with NFA personnel.
“I think it’s obvious because both agencies had some jurisdiction over the apprehended smuggled rice… They probably have a liability for this,” he said.
The NFA also came under fire at the Senate, where Senator Cynthia Villar accused officials from the agency who attended Thursday’s budget hearing of intentionally creating confusion.
In the hearing, Maria Mercedes Yacapin and Yolanda Nieves, NFA assistant administrator and assistant administrator for Finance, respectively, gave conflicting figures.
“Sometimes, they would say bags. We are talking of metric tons, that’s our measurement. And then when are talking about local [rice], it would suddenly become imported. They’re saying different things,” said Villar.
“So we can’t reach a conclusion. Because I have been asking them how much their losses [are] when they buy local and how much they lose when they buy imported,” she said in a mix of English and Filipino.
She also said the minority senators were not satisfied with the answers given by NFA officials when they were grilled over the losses incurred by the agency.
She also said there were questions on their process of importing rice when in fact, they can buy rice from local farmers at a higher cost than the prevailing P17.00 farmgate price per kilo.
Villar, chairman of the Senate agriculture and food committee, also grilled NFA officials on what happened to the P7-billion government subsidy given to them.
“They have a subsidy of P7 billion a year, where did it go?” Villar said.
“So they said they lose P9 from local rice bought and they lose P3 from imported rice,” she said.
Villar also questioned the NFA’s P5 billion overhead for operations and personnel.
She set another hearing next week before they decide on the NFA’s proposed budget.