ANGELES CITY- The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) has come out with documents from the National Food Authority (NFA) allegedly implicating Agriculture Sec. Proceso Alcala and NFA administrator Orlan Calayag in rice smuggling reportedly involving Davidson Bangayan alias David Tan dubbed as the “Goliath” of rice smuggling in the country.
The KMP furnished the media with a document submitted by the NFA to the House of Representatives during the budget deliberations last year on the “status of the importation of well-milled rice under the Country Specific Quota (CSQ) of 163,000 metric tons for the year 2013 which is undertaken by the private sector and farmers organization.”
The two-page document signed by NFA administrator Calayag states that, “as of September 3, 2013, we (NFA) were able to issue import permits (IP) to fi ve (5) entities out of 31 applicant importers.”
On top of Calayag’s list of import permittees was Starcraft International Trading Corp. allegedly owned by Bangayan. Also in the list were San Miguel MPC, Bold Bidder Marketing and General Mdse., Inter-Continental Grains International Trading, Inc., and Kwin Rice Trading.
“During the Senate committee on agriculture’s hearing last Wednesday, it was alleged that Bangayan is connected with Starcraft. In the same hearing, Bold Bidder Marketing was mentioned by a customs official for acquiring an injunction order from a court in Lemery, Batangas province even before the shipment ordered by the (Starcraft) company arrived," KMP recalled.
The KMP noted that “the whole time in this noise on rice smuggling, the Aquino government, DA Secretary Alcala and NFA’s Calayag made it appear that these rice smugglers operate underground when, in fact, they are the ones who granted import permits” as shown allegedly by last year’s NFA documents.
“The NFA couldn’t have issued import permits to Starcraft and other rice importers if they do not know who’s behind the applicant importers,” said KMP Deputy Secretary General Willy Marbella. Marbella also said “rice smugglers and their dummies cannot secure an import permit if they don’t have connections to powerful and infl uential people like Alcala and Calayag.”
“Alcala and Calayag’s political role-playing is over. Calayag’s list shows that all along the NFA and the DA know the identity of rice smugglers because they were the ones who provided legal cover for them,” he said.
Marbella said “Alcala and Calayag should now stop fooling the Filipino people.” He insisted that “the modus operandi of rice cartels and smugglers of using farmers’ cooperatives as dummies is an open secret inside the NFA.”
“Obviously, this multi-million racket in the rice industry is happening with the blessings of the President for his favorite cabinet secretary,” he said. The KMP said that “the farmers-as-importers program is nothing but a legal cover provided by the NFA to rice cartels and smugglers to corner the big bulk of rice importation.”
“We demand that the DA and the NFA unmask the dummy farmer cooperatives in Calayag’s list and the rice cartels and smugglers behind them,” said Marbella. The KMP also said “the current rice trade liberalization policy implemented by the Aquino government has turned the Philippines into a dumping ground of imported rice.”
“This so-called ‘free trade’ system allowed, in fact, breeds smuggling and corruption. Corrupt government officials profit more from direct bribes and protection money coming from smugglers than in the so-called ‘free trade’ system,” Marbella added.
