Hot rice auction nets BOC P385.4M

CEBU, Philippines - The Bureau of Customs (BOC) in Cebu has successfully sold in a public auction yesterday 253,490 bags of seized smuggled rice, earning for the government P385,396,433.

The amount is P60.92 million higher than the floor price of P324,464,200 set for the bidding, which was participated in by 46 traders from around the country.

“I am very much elated with the result kasi nga mataas yung nabenta (because it was sold at a higher value),” said outgoing District Collector Edward dela Cuesta.

The bidding, which lasted for about seven hours, was the last of four biddings that the bureau conducted for the more than 600,000 bags of smuggled rice seized last March.

The said shipment, which came from Vietnam, was falsely declared as stone and wooden slabs.

The bureau has now earned around P850 million from the said smuggled rice. It still has a second hand ambulance, a speedboat, barrels of industrial oil, and more than 200 units of motorcycles, among others, that have not been auctioned off yet.

Dela Cuesta said it is up to his replacement to conduct an inventory and decide on the above items.

He is set to be transferred to the BOC-Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), with former Cebu district collector Ricardo Belmonte replacing him.

Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon earlier issued a memorandum mandating all personnel nationwide to go back to their mother units.

Dela Cuesta’s mother unit is BOC-NAIA while Belmonte’s is the Cebu Port District. (FREEMAN)