By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

The Negros Occidental provincial government vowed to assist in the ongoing investigation into the 600 sacks of Vietnamese rice intercepted over the weekend in Escalante City. The Bureau of Plans Industry Plant Quarantine Service and Bureau of Customs are leading the probe.
Negros Occidental provincial agriculturist, Atty. Japhet Masculino, said they will coordinate with the Department of Trade and Industry and Bureau of Internal Revenue pertaining to the entry of such products with documentation problems.
Meanwhile, the trucks carrying the rice are currently under custody of the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and will be released once a permit from the National Food Authority is issued. PCG-Negros Occidental head, Lt. Commander Rockliff Buling, earlier stated the vehicles carrying rice were caught during routine inspections of Roll-on/Roll-off vessels plying the Cebu-Escalante City route.
“It was discovered that it was declared as ‘animal feed’ in the manifesto and it had no required customs declaration,” he pointed out.
In addition, Joel Taganili of the PCG-Escalante substation said they also discovered the manifesto did not contain the name of the supplier and consignee./DGB, WDJ