JPE names broker of seized rice

SENATE President Juan Ponce Enrile has pointed to a certain Danny Ngo as one of the brokers who tried to facilitate the release of rice shipments which arrived from India through the Subic Bay freeport zone.

Enrile alleged that two big shipments of the valuable grains managed to slip out of the freeport zone before customs officials seized huge shipments from India and Vietnam.

In a privilege speech on Wednesday, Enrile said the Aquino administration’s avowed campaign against graft would be for naught if the government fails to identify the masterminds and the financiers behind the daring smuggling of rice through the freeport.

“There are those who say that before these two sets of importation of rice were discovered—the 90 vans from Vietnam and the about 1,000 vans from India—there were already two that arrived and came out of Subic to enter our market,” Enrile said.

Enrile identified Ngo as one of the brokers who lobbied for the release of the seized rice from India.

He indicated that certain people in Subic could be involved in the smuggling operations since they allowed the withdrawal of the import entry declaration that tried to pass off the rice shipment as fertilizer and construction material.

“Now, my question is, ‘What happened to the X-ray worth $140 million bought by the government that they didn’t see that what was in the almost 1,000 container vans was rice?’” Enrile said.

Enrile wouldn’t buy the excuse that the shipment was for transshipment to India. He said the rice was already stored in sacks ready for distribution to the Philippine market.

Another sign that it was for Philippine consumption was the brand name Mango, which he said was already in the Philippine market.

“Now, why is this happening? My question is who are these people who are so daring, very aggressive in bringing in huge quantities of rice? Who are they?” Enrile said.

“At present, the fact is that there isn’t just the smuggling of rice. There’s also those of pork, poultry, onions, garlic, ginger,” he added.

Enrile asked the Senate to conduct an inquiry into the blatant smuggling activities as the country tries to become self-sufficient in rice by 2013.

The matter was referred to the Senate committees on agriculture, trade and ways and means.

“This is a test case. This will show if our stand to clean up corruption in the country is for real,” Enrile said. “Whoever they are, whoever their backers are, they should all be imprisoned,” he added.