Smuggled rice eyed in cargo

CEBU CITY — There appears to be no let-up in attempts to smuggle rice right through the Port of Cebu.

Last May 3, another shipment of 20 container vans which Customs intelligence agents suspect may contain smuggled rice arrived at the Port of Cebu allegedly disguised as a shipment of lenses, wire rods and plastic materials.

The shipment is now being held by Customs and is expected to be opened tomorrow.

Customs inspectors themselves may have a lot of explaining to do because of their failure to ship the vans back to Singapore from where they came from as requested by the shipping agent, which became suspicious when no one came to claim the shipment.

The bureau has approved the request to have the vans shipped back to Singapore.

The shipping agent, Mercury Steamship Agencies, said it is neither the consignee nor the owner of the vans but just the sub-agent for the shipment.

"We are not the consignee nor the owner of that shipment. We are just a shipping agent. As to who is the ultimate consignee, (we don’t know)," said Rodolfo Munsayac, Cebu branch manager of Mercury Steamship. — Freeman News Service