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THE
National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Thursday filed
rice manipulation and hoarding charges against five
Chinese nationals, three of them arrested in separate
operations in Isabela province on Wednesday, before the
Department of Justice (DOJ)-Task Force on Anti-Rice
Hoarding.
Charged
were Pan Ziqiang Pua and his wife, Lita Dy Pua,
operators of Lucky Bros. Ricemill; and Anna Marie
Velasco-Chua, a rice-mill owner in Isabela, and her two
workers Ting Ting Lee and Zeny Uy. Chua and Pua are
still at large.
Lee and
Uy, who were tending to the store of Uy in San Vicente,
Ilagan, both failed to show their alien certificates of
registration to arresting law enforcers.
Chua,
Lee and Uy were charged with engaging in the business of
palay trading without authorization and license from the
National Food Authority (NFA), for violating the
signboard provision of the Revised Rules and Regulation
on Grains Business, lack of record book showing their
grains transactions and using unprescribed price tags.
Recovered from their possession were some 76 sacks of
palay.
On the
other hand, Pua and his wife are facing charges of
illegal price manipulation through the commission of
hoarding, cornering of grains, absence of required
license, lack of signboard, failure to maintain record
book for warehouse-grains transaction and nondisplay of
license.
Seized
from their business establishment were some 8,200 bags
of palay, 3,500 bags of rice and 500 bags of rice bran.
NBI
Director Nestor Mantaring in an interview said Pua
violated the country’s Antihoarding Act considering his
massive rice stock.
He added
that since Pua did not have an NFA license, the presence
of rice stocks in his establishment constitutes
hoarding.
For his
part, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez directed Mantaring
to determine if the suspects were engaged in illegal
shipment of grains as it is possible that they were
planning to transport the grains to China or Taiwan and
sell the stocks for much higher prices.
Gonzalez
earlier said that warehouses owners found hoarding rice
in an effort to jack up the prices of the staple can be
charged with economic sabotage, a nonbailable offense.
“Charges
of economic sabotage could be filed against those who
are hoarding large quantities of rice. It is part of the
investigation that the NBI is doing now,” Gonzalez
added.
He said
the NBI is looking into the possible involvement of some
NFA personnel with rice hoarders. |
