2 M sacks of rice found in Bulacan raid

Authorities found more than two million sacks of rice during a raid on 115 warehouses at the Intercity Industrial Estate in Bocaue, Bulacan yesterday morning.

Roland Argabioso, head agent of the NBI-Field Operations Division, said there were 115 warehouses at Intercity where between 25,000 and 40,000 sacks of rice were stored in each holding area.

The warehouses contained National Food Authority (NFA) rice as well as commercial and imported rice.

The Intercity is responsible for providing 65 percent of the country’s rice supply and its stocks are enough to sustain the demand for rice for three months.

“We believe that there is no rice shortage in the country. Those behind the hoarding wanted to control the price of rice. If there is a great demand but there is less supply, then the price of the commodity would go up,” Argabioso said.

However, he admitted that they also saw several sacks of spoiled rice. For every warehouse, there were about 200 to 500 sacks of rotten rice.

The NBI, along with NFA officials and operatives of the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG), conducted the raid. The NBI tapped all its seven intelligence units for the operation.

To legitimize the raid, Argabioso said they used the visitation powers of the NFA and the mission order of the PASG.

As of press time yesterday, the raiding team had inspected only five of the 115 warehouses. No arrests were made and the authorities would not confiscate the sacks of rice.

The NFA officials were looking into the possibility that the owners and operators of the 115 warehouses committed violations.

They questioned why there were empty sacks of NFA rice and why some of the sacks were turned inside out.

There were suspicions that part of the NFA rice could have also been re-milled and repacked to be sold as high-quality commercial rice.