The Customs Intelligence Investigation Service (CIIS) on Thursday, August 24, conducted a raid on three warehouses in Bulacan for allegedly selling smuggled rice.
According to Edwin Duque’s report in MBC Network News, CIIS Chief Attorney Alvin Emcisco, together with House representatives Martin Romualdez, House Committee on Agriculture and Food chairman Mark Enverga, Act-Party List Erwin Tulfo, and the Agricultural Community, discovered thousands of grains of rice as opposed to the current reports on the rice shortage.
The team raided three warehouses inside the Entercity area in Bulacan.
First is the FS Rice Mill, which is owned by "Edith" in Entercity, Malakas, Bucaue, Bulacan, where they discovered 5,000 sacks of rice.
The next warehouse was the San Pedro Rice Mill, owned by Rodolfo Mendoza, at Gate 2 of Entercity near Balagtas, Bulacan, which contains 50,000 to 80,000 sacks of rice from Thailand.
The last warehouse was on the Great Harvest Rice Mill at Gate 2 of Entercity, which is already part of Balagtas, Bulacan.
These are the large rice mills that supply small businessmen before delivering to the National Capital Region (NCR).
According to Congressman Enverga, they will carefully check if the date of the arrival of the rice matches the documents shown based on the owners' claim that the rice has just arrived from Thailand.
The warehouses will be temporarily closed while the Department of Agriculture (DA) conducts an investigation and inventory of customs.
