The Justice department on Sunday ordered the National Bureau of Investigation to join the probe on the sacks of smuggled rice in Zamboanga City that went missing on Sept. 30.
“I have directed the NBI to assist the Bureau of Customs and the National Food Authority in the investigation of the missing 23,015 sacks of confiscated smuggled rice in Zamboanga City,” Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said in a statement.
“I will leave it to NBI Director Dante Gierran to determine if his agents down south could do a credible investigation or the Anti-Smuggling Task Force at the head office should do it,” Guevarra said.
The NBI is an attached agency of the Justice department.
Customs has already started looking into the incidents that led to the disappearance of the 23,013 sacks of alleged smuggled rice.
It was reported that President Rodrigo Duterte was upset upon learning of the missing sacks of rice that were intercepted from three vessels by the Philippine Coast Guard, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and then turned over to Customs for inventory and the issuance of a warrant of seizure and detention.
On Oct. 4, two Customs officials in Zamboanga City were placed under “administrative relief” pending the investigation of the missing sacks of smuggled rice.
Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said Customs Chief Isidro Lapeña had ordered the preventive suspension of Port of Zamboanga District Collector Lyceo Martinez and Customs police district commander Filomeno Salazar.
Roque said the two officials were suspended so they could not “tamper with evidence or influence the investigation.”
He said the incident showed there was smuggling, that smuggled rice was being sold in the market, and that there were warehouses hoarding rice.
He said Customs officials could be held liable for the missing sacks of smuggled rice.
To date, 16,000 sacks have been recovered from various privately owned warehouses.