SPEAKER Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez has assured Filipino consumers that the surprise inspections at warehouses holding rice stocks last week were not a one-hit wonder and that the Bureau of Customs would continue to carry out more inspections.
Romualdez said he agrees with the remark of House Committee on Agriculture and Food Chairman Wilfrido Mark Enverga, that “rice hoarding is economic sabotage in its highest degree.” Last August 24, the joint contingent from the House and BOC swooped down at warehouses in Bulacan and found over 200,000 sacks of rice that were seemingly being purposely held.
“We need to carry out more of these inspections, and I trust the commissioner to do so in order to keep rice traders obedient to the law,” Romualdez said.