BOC finds P1.8 billion imported sugar in Batangas warehouse

MANILA, Philippines — Close to 400,000 sacks of imported and local sugar with an estimated market value of P1.8 billion were found by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) during an inspection at a sugar warehouse in Nasugbu, Batangas over the weekend.

BOC Commissioner Yogi Filemon Ruiz said the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Services-Manila International Container Port (CIIS-MICP) led the inspection of the Central Azucarera Don Pedro on Sunday in Barangay Lumbangan that resulted in the discovery of the 378,889 sacks of both imported and local sugar.

Operatives of the intelligence units of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Philippine National Police-Criminal Investigation and Detection Groupwere also part of the inspection.

Found during the inspection were an estimated 181,299 sacks of imported MITR PHOL brand pure refined sugar from Thailand along with some 197,590 sacks of the local Don Pedro white sugar. Each sack weighs 50 kilos.

Ruiz said the inspection in Batangas is part of their intensified efforts “to find storage facilities alleged to be hoarding sugar” amid the sugar crisis in the country.

“We consider this a huge breakthrough in our ongoing campaign against sugar hoarding. This may be one of our biggest operations to date since we started inspecting sugar storage facilities,” Ruiz said.

He said that a letter of authority and a mission order were served by the CIIS-MICP to the owners or any representatives or to whoever are in possession of the goods stored in the warehouse as it was temporarily padlocked and sealed.

BOC inspectors placed caution tapes on the entrances and exits of the warehouse while assigned BOC examiners will lead the inventory of the sugar, which will be witnessed by the CIIS, Enforcement and Security Services and representatives of the warehouse.

Ruiz highlighted the need to do more even as he lauded the recent operations.

“Clearly, there is more work to do. As big as this inspection is in terms of what we have been focused on for the past couple of weeks, it seems some people or groups or businesses have yet to understand that we are dead serious about this mission,” Ruiz said.

“We aren’t stopping anytime soon, and working together with different government agencies – from the police to the military – showed what we can do when we pour all our resources and energy into doing what we are mandated to do and what the President had asked from us,” he added.

The BOC said it would continue with its inspection of sugar warehouses in a bid to stop possible hoarding of sugar amid the crisis in the country.

Before this, the BOC had found 57,000 sacks of imported sugar during its inspection at a sugar warehouse in Quezon City and around 576,816 sacks of local sugar in two separate inspections in Bukidnon.