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Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Rice warehouse has conflicting NFA certifications
By Karlon N. Rama
CEBU CITY -- An official of the National Food Authority (NFA) Tuesday admitted in open court that the Mandaue City warehouse containing businessman Regan King's rice did not have a license.
Jaime Ang, testifying before RTC Executive Judge Fortunato de Gracia, said their records only showed a license application for warehouse 52 of the Mandaue North Central Castelex Compound.
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But Cebu City Councilor Gerry Carillo, King's lawyer, clarified in an interview Tuesday night that what the official meant was the absence of a license plate. Ang heads the licensing division of the NFA provincial office.
"There is none because the NFA did not issue one to anybody," Carillo said. He explained that the NFA has not yet conducted the bidding for the manufacturing of the plates that all registered warehouses are supposed to display.
Ang's testimony clarifies allegations that the raid the NBI carried out against the warehouse was baseless and done simply to harass the businessman, said NBI 7 Director Medardo de Lemos.
Warrant
"An application is not a license. When you apply for a passport, your application will not allow you to travel," the NBI Central Visayas director said in an interview after the hearing.
While Ang tried to explain that the implementing rules of Presidential Decree 4 allow for provisional licenses to be issued, de Lemos got him to admit on the witness stand that implementing rules do not amend the law sought to be enforced.
De Gracia Tuesday held the first hearing for the quashal motions that King and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) filed against the April 2, 2008 search warrant he issued. That warrant led to the raid and padlocking of the warehouse.
Carillo presented King and Ang in the hearing that ended at noon, while Atty. Edward Dy Buco submitted the position of the BOC, which Judge de Gracia approved as an intervenor during the hearing.
Dy Buco, while addressing the court, said it is the BOC that has custody over the shipment because they have not yet released it from inventory.
Transfer
He said the transfer of the shipment from the Cebu International Port to the Mandaue City warehouse was only provisional, pending the outcome of the inventory and the final order of release from the Office of the Customs Commissioner.
Presidential Decree 4 does not yet apply as far as the shipment is concerned, because it had not yet been released, he said.
De Lemos appeared in behalf of the NBI. Again he reiterated that the bureau is not concerned about the rice importation, but the operation of the warehouse.
He said they are merely implementing Presidential Decree 4. The law created the National Grains Authority (now the NFA) whose mandate, de Lemos pointed out, is to prevent hoarding, among others.
He explained that under Section 13, all warehousemen need to be registered and licensed with the NFA. He also cited Section 29 of the same law, which provides that all warehouses used to store grains need to be licensed.
The hearing will continue today with two NFA officials subpoenaed to take the stand.
Summoned
Carillo is expected to present NFA Provincial Manager Ramon Astilla who, a day after the raid, issued a certification saying King had a license to operate the warehouse that he leased from its owner.
De Lemos, for his part, asked the court to subpoena NFA Regional Director Danilo Bonabon. Bonabon issued the April 1, 2008 certification saying his agency did not issue a license to warehouse 52.
The NBI relied on the certification when they went to de Gracia to apply for the April 2 search warrant that was subsequently granted.
"We will hear what they have to say," Judge de Gracia, in a separate interview, said.
King has cried foul over the search. He said he has all the documents. The license is under the name of his business Jolli Traders International Inc., adding that he leased the warehouse from former Cebu Ports Authority general manager Mariano C.J. Martinez.
But it was Ang who prepared the April 1, 2008 certification. According to NBI sources, he even counter-signed it in the presence of an NBI employee.
Storage
Based on the certification, the warehouse was not among those facilities authorized by the NFA for "rice storage warehousing activities."
Carillo, in the interview, said the certification became so worded because the NBI, when they made their inquiry, asked only if a license had been issued to Martinez.
Had the NBI asked if King had a license, the outcome would have been different. He submitted for marking as evidence the license application King filed in the name of his business.
But De Lemos did not even inspect the document when it was marked. In the interview after the hearing, he said it was the application has now been entered into the record, not the license.
"They said that the application is as good as a license but they cannot cite any authority. Even if it is so stated in the implementing rules and regulations, can the implementing rules amend the law itself?" he asked. (Sun.Star Cebu)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Pangasinan. (April 9, 2008 issue)
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