The final report on the sugar warehouse raid led by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) can be expected in two weeks since the owners of the warehouses were given 15 days to present the proper documents to clear out allegations they were illegally importing and hoarding sugar.
Edward James Dy Buco, deputy commissioner for BOC’s Assessment and Operations Coordination Group (AOCG), said on Monday, Aug. 22, during the joint House committee hearing on the sugar import mess that there was no official word yet on the supposed use of “recycled” import permit.
“As to the result, still we are awaiting for the final report by the raiding teams,” he told lawmakers.
“Hindi pa talaga (It’s not really) official because they are given 15 days to produce documents,” Buco added, noting that classifying the discovered sugar stock as "hoarded" is the job of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the embattled Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA).
He said that as far as the BOC is concerned, the investigation isn’t final yet because there are many technicalities involved.
READ: Sugar smuggling using ‘recycled import permits’ emerges, Palace bares
Gabriela Party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas and Quezon 2nd district Rep. David “Jay-Jay” Suarez repeatedly asked about the supposed recycled import permit used by the importers of the foiled attempt to bring 7,021 metric tons (MTs) of sugar from Thailand at the Subic Port in Zambales.
“In Subic, I know it was verified a valid import permit. In the other warehouse(s), we are still in the process of verifying the documents and collating the documents submitted,” Buco said, adding that the BOC gives “due process also to the owners of the warehouses and the shipments".
The raid on the warehouses—two in Bulacan and one in Pampanga—last week unveiled the huge controversy on the hoarding practices of some businesses in an attempt to manipulate the market and raise the current prices of sugar.
The BOC was ordered to inspect warehouses it believed could be hoarding sugar. Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles said in a press release that the bureau learned of the practice of recycling sugar import permits during one of these raids.
READ: Palace warns erring traders; suspected hoarded sugar found in Pampanga warehouse
But Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) officer-in-charge Joeffrey Tacio already reported that the sugar shipment from Thailand was covered by a “Special Permit to Discharge (SPD) and verified Single Administrative Document (SAD)” from the bureau, and had a verified clearance from the SRA.
The sugar importation mess started when President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., who holds the agriculture department in a concurrent capacity, rejected Sugar Order No. 4, which would have authorized the importation of 300,000 MTs of sugar in the country.