THE Bureau of Customs assured that there are no ‘fake rice” in Davao City and all rice importations in this city have proper documents approved by National Food Authority (NFA).
“Ang fake rice luma na na siya nga issue, dito sa Davao ngayon, wala ng fake rice pero meron tayong rice importation but these are all with complete documents,” said district collector of Bureau of Customs Port of Davao lawyer Erastus Sandino Austria in a media interview on Wednesday, June 21.
He said since this is a very controversial issue, everybody is taking precautions in handling these transactions.
“We are very careful in securing transactions pertaining to rice,” he said.
Austria said in a Senate hearing last week, all district collectors of major ports were called for an inquiry about fake rice.
“Pinatawag lahat ng district collectors of the major ports to attend the Senate hearing, our commissioner and deputy commissioner were also there wala namang problema ang port of Davao in particular even the other ports with rice kasi pinapalabas talaga yung merong import permit at merong allocation,” he said.
Austria said for this year, the NFA set an initial quota of 805,200 metric tons of rice to be imported all over the country, and the allocation is running out, since almost all of it was already received by the Philippines.
He said among the countries which supply rice to the Philippines are China, India, Pakistan, Australia, El Salvador, Thailand, Vietnam.
Recently, the National Food Authority assured the public that there is no proof that fake rice is being sold in the country, this after reports showing alleged fake rice, whose complaints came from Borongan Samar, and Taguig City.