The Bureau of Customs (BOC) must conduct more inspections at warehouses holding rice stocks as the government cracks down on cartels manipulating prices of farm products, Speaker Martin Romualdez said in a statement on Sunday. Romualdez also assured Filipino consumers that surprise inspections at warehouses holding rice stocks would continue in the coming weeks. ‘We need to carry out more of these inspections and I trust the (BOC) Commissioner (Bienvenido Rubio) to do so in order to keep rice traders obedient to the law,’ Romualdez said. “I thank Commissioner Rubio for his initiative of peering into these suspicious warehouses at a time when Filipinos are grappling with rising prices of rice. This will make hoarders think twice about their schemes,” he added. On Aug. 24, the joint contingent from the House and BOC swooped down at warehouses in Bulacan and found over 200,000 sacks of rice valued at PHP505 million that were seemingly purposely held. The BOC, armed with letters of authority, barred the owners of the Great Harvest Rice Mill Warehouse, the San Pedro Warehouse, and the FS Rice Mill from retrieving the goods pending submission of required documents on rice importation.

Source: Philippines News Agency