Caught Re-bagging of NFA Rice in Tacurong City

A joint team from the Tacurong police and representatives of the NFA and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) raided the Tacurong Agri-World Rice Mill on Wednesday morning and found at least 1,000 sacks of NFA well-milled rice being re-bagged.Tacurong police director Joel Limson, in a interview, said that during the raid, at least 80 of the re-bagged rice were already loaded on a 16-wheeler truck and was about to be delivered to a buyer in Davao City.Limson said 10 workers were at the warehouse when the raiders arrived at around 8:20 a.m. on Wednesday, but rice mill owner Bernardo Tan was not around.The raiding team was led by Tacurong City councilor Excel Pauya and Vicente Gopes, together with an investigator of the NFA in Sultan Kudarat and Carmen Porto from the DTI, also in Sultan Kudarat. The police officiers who joined the raid were led by Inspector Antonio Barroquillo of the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team of the Tacurong PNP office and SPO4 Miguel Biadoma of the Special Operations Group. Limson said concerned citizens reported the on-going in Tan’s warehouse situated at Purok New Negros in Barangay San Pablo after days of surveillance. “The laborers told us, when we asked them, the bags would be delivered to a buyer in Davao City whom they refused to identify," said Limson. It is sad to know that in spite of the rice in the Philippines is at crisis, there is still businessman who took the opportunity to gain more income. The needs of the poor could not be served either they were deprived of their privileges to avail the lower cost of rice.