By: Czarina Nicole O. Ong
Sen. Panfilo “Ping” M. Lacson yesterday filed economic sabotage, graft, and grave misconduct charges against former Bureau of Customs Commissioner Nicanor E. Faeldon and several other individuals before the Ombudsman over the alleged anomalous rice smuggling activities in Cagayan de Oro City.
In the complaint, Lacson said that a significant volume of rice shipments was consigned to Cebu Lite Trading Inc. last March.
On March 9, 2017, a shipment of 21,800 bags of Vietnamese Long Grain White Rice consigned to CLTI entered the Port of Cagayan de Oro, which was valued at $370,600.
When the shipment arrived, CLTI did not possess the required documents to allow importation, so on March 10, a request to witness spot checking of the cargo was made.
Following the spot check, the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service discovered that the importation was made without the required import permit.
As a result, the CIIS made a request for the issuance of an alert order for the shipment.
On the same date, another shipment of 18,200 bags of the same rice, valued at $309,400 also entered the Port of Cagayan de Oro.
The shipment was also made without any import permit. Because of this, a request for an alert order was made on March 16.
In both rice shipments consigned to CLTI, Lacson said there was a failure to file the corresponding import entries within the 15-day prescriptive period.
