BALAGTAS, Bulacan — Three rice mills and a rice warehouse at an industrial estate in this town and at a business park in Bocaue were shut down by the Bureau of Customs Wednesday morning.
Closed were the Gold Rush Ricemill and the Denorado Warehouse in the Intercity Industrial Estate, JJS Ricemill and the other branch of the Gold Rush Ricemill in Golden City Business Park.
Earlier, House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, Act-CIS Partylist Rep. Erwin Tulfo, Bulacan 5th District Rep. Ambrosio Cruz, and the Philippine Coast Guard made an inspection of the areas.
Alvin Enciso, chief of Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service, said the establishments were closed after failing to present the original importation permit document required by the agency.
Some 154,000 boxes of suspected imported rice worth P431 million were discovered in the closed warehouses, according to BoC.
Meanwhile, the three rice mills that were shut down last week in Bulacan still remain closed because their owners have not been able to submit the relevant documents.
House Speaker Romualdez noted that while the supply of rice in the country is sufficient, it appears that there are rice traders hoarding it and waiting for the price to rise before releasing it to the market.
He said they will monitor the rice mills in the country and if it is found that their documents are not correct, the government should confiscate the rice and give it to the people at the right price.
Romualdez added that if the Kadiwa stores in Tacloban and Visayas are able to sell P20 pesos/kilo of rice, other areas should also be able to sell at such a price to meet President Bongbong Marcos Jr.’s campaign promise.
Meanwhile, Punto! is still trying to get the side of the owners of the closed rice mills and warehouse as of posting time.
