DAVAO City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte warned traders on Sunday against entertaining the idea of bringing in fake rice from China, saying once he gets to know of one, he will force the importer to eat all the rice he is importing in 24 hours.
“Huwag mong gawin ‘yan kasi ipapakain ko sa‘yo yan, kung dosientos ka toneladas (200 tons) iyan, then I’ll give you 24 hours to eat it. Do not do it because it is harmful to humans,” Duterte said.
There have been talks about fake rice made of plastic being manufactured now in China.
Duterte said the agencies concerned should know about the issue and that the local government would only act on the matter once a good intelligence report confirms its presence.
“There are agencies that could really connect the issue and they can do more if magtrabaho lang sila. Department of Agriculture, kasi yan sila they studied the market of rice. Labas nila, that’s the police and local government,” Duterte said.
Duterte added that he would encourage the police to know more about the issue, although there is no need yet for the police to be inside ports to inspect.
He said once intelligence reports point to the entry of fake rice in the city port, he will authorize police to stop it.
“I will authorize them to establish checkpoints even outside sa pier and will conduct the search,” Duterte said.
He stressed the danger of plastic getting into a person’s system.
According to the latest reports last month, an NFA spokesperson assured that the fake rice has not entered the NFA rice importation and that the NFA-Food Development Center is conducting another round of evaluation on questionable imports.
Reports added that the Department of Agriculture has directed the Bureau of Plant and Industry to investigate talks about the so-called fake rice and strengthen its screening process to imported rice.
Reports said that a volume of fake rice from China have allegedly been exported to Asian countries such as India, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Singapore. The Philippines previously has been importing rice from Vietnam.