Over 1,100 sacks of alleged counterfeit wheat flour were seized by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) during raids in several warehouses in Manila and Quezon City. NBI agents seized last Monday, March 13, the alleged counterfeit wheat flour from the warehouses of Goldepost General Merchandising and Godsway Marketing during the service of search warrants issued by Manila regional trial court Judge Rainelda Estacio-Montesa, said lawyer Wigberto Tanada Jr., legal counsel of Philippine Foremost Milling Corporation (PFMC). Owners of the two firms could not be contacted as of posting. A check with the NBI showed that its agents conducted the operations based on the search warrants and information made available to the bureau. Tanada Jr. also confirmed that PFMC filed complaints with the NBI. “Found and confiscated during the search were over 1,100 sacks of counterfeit Washington Gold Hard Wheat Flour packed in polypropylene sack or cotton sack and 145 re-stitched and re-sacked original sacks containing different flour,” Tanada Jr. said in a statement. Tanada Jr. noted that “Washington Gold Hard Wheat Flour is an original product of Philippine Foremost Milling Corporation (PFMC), one of the country’s biggest flour millers.” He claimed that a caretaker of one of the warehouses alleged “the sacks were bought from Divisoria Market but failed to identify the seller.” He said that “PFMC received complaints from its bakery customers of alleged quality issues on one of its popular flour products, the Washington Gold Hard Wheat Flour.” “The company immediately conducted an investigation and discovered that the flour delivered to the said bakeries were fake PFMC Washington Gold Hard Wheat Flour products,” he said. “The label and the sacks used were of poor quality, and laboratory tests also confirmed that the flour inside the sacks were not real PFMC Washington Gold Hard Wheat Flour,” he also said.