Customs to donate confiscated rice to typhoon survivors

Customs chief says that the two forty-footer containers of imported rice from China with an estimated value of P20 million will still undergo testing to determine if they are safe for human consumption

THE Bureau of Customs (BoC) is looking to donate to the victims of recent calamities the 12 fortyfooter containers of imported rice from China with an estimated value of P20 million.

According to Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon, they will coordinate with the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to determine where to distribute the apprehended rice shipment.

“We have government agencies that need rice. Under the law, we can donate through DSWD. They will be the ones to determine what office will use that (rice). There’s so many calamities in the past, [so] we can use these for calamity victims and other purposes,” he said during an interview at the Port of Manila (POM) yesterday.

But the BOC chief said that the rice will still undergo testing to determine if they are safe for human consumption.

“We will have it tested, but definitely it’s really rice,” he added.

The shipment, which was initially declared to contain leatherette, arrived at the said port last Aug. 20.

It was alerted by the BOC Command Center on Oct. 4.

“The 12 containers were declared to contain leatherette. That’s too high. Do we really have a demand for that big volume of leatherette? Once you see that there’s no demand for them, you have to alert then check on the shipment,” he explained.

The inspection revealed that all containers carry thousands of sacks of rice, but none with the declared material. The shipment was consigned to RPR International Trading.

“Once they knew that we seized the shipments, they abandoned them (the sipments),” said Faeldon, adding that this is the first time an importer attempted to smuggle rice of this value into the country via the POM.

With this, he has ordered the suspension of the consignee’s accreditation as importer.

“We will suspend their accreditation,” Faeldon added.

In the past weeks, some parts of the country were hit by typhoons such as tropical cyclones Karen and Lawin, which devastated Central and Northern Luzon, respectively.