Rice importer, broker charged for smuggling; Seized rice earns gov’t P178-M from auction

The Bureau of Customs (BOC) has filed charges against an importer and a customs broker over the importation of 200 container vans of rice into the country allegedly without the required import permit.

Four complaints for violating the provision of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act on illegal importation and the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act were filed against Santa Rosa Farm Products Corp and four of its top officers before the Department of Justice.

Rice trader Jomerito Soliman, president and general manager of Sta. Rosa, was tagged in the charges, the bureau said in a statement on Thursday.

In 2014, Soliman had accused former National Food Authority administrator Arthur Juan and his assistant, Patricia Galang, of extorting millions of pesos from him in exchange for the re-opening of his raided warehouse in Bulacan.

Soliman was recently reported to have cried foul over the seizure of 100,000 sacks of Thai rice his firm had imported from Vietnam.

The BOC said Soliman is also a respondent in a rice smuggling case it had filed last year.

Meanwhile, one Diosdado Santiago, a supposed licensed customs broker who allegedly processed the flagged importation, also faces charges, the bureau said. 

The BOC added that 150 of the containers were ordered forfeited in favor of the government, while the other 50 were declared abandoned by Manila International Container Port (MICP) District Collector Vener Baquiran.

The rice was sold in a public auction, generating a total revenue of P177.99 million, the BOC said. — MDM, GMA News