BY HERBERT VEGO
ILOILO City – The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) regional office here has filed a criminal complaint against rice dealer Dennis B. Devicente for re-bagging National Food Authority (NFA) rice, allegedly in “violation of Regulation No. 15 of the Revised Rules and Regulations on Grains Business under Presidential Decree No. 4.”
The case stemmed from a “raid” by NBI operatives at respondent’s Restia Warehouse at past midnight on July 31, 2014, where the operatives allegedly caught laborers in the act of “rebagging” NFA rice from an NFA-labeled sack to a plain white sack so it could be sold as “commercial rice” at a higher price.
The NBI complaint-affidavit – lodged before Provincial Prosecutor Bernabe Dusaban by NBI assistant regional director Joel Curammeng and six subordinates – named Devicente and 26 warehouse employees as respondents in the above-described complaint.
In its information report submitted to the provincial prosecutor, the NBI claimed that as early as July 28, its intelligence asset was already keeping track of unverified information that a warehouse in Barangay Napnud, Leganes, Iloilo was stacking NFA rice.
On July 29, intelligence agents and assets allegedly conducted surveillance on two trucks fully loaded with sacks of rice entering Devicente’s warehouse. They suspected that the rice would be re-sacked, disguised as commercial rice, hence in violation of Presidential Decree No. 4.
At an unspecified time on July 30, NBI agents led by Atty. Ramilo Quinto were allegedly “allowed to enter the said warehouse by the employees of the same and that during the inspection, more than 10 laborers were observed in the actual act of re-bagging NFA-labeled rice into plain unmarked sacks.”
While there, they allegedly made an inventory of 1,023 sacks of suspected re-bagged NFA rice and 22 sacks of NFA-labeled ones.
The NBI affiants also admitted having seized the items and turned them over into the custody of unnamed NFA officials.
Their affidavit made no mention of personnel from ABS-CBN and GMA television networks who had come to cover the re-bagging “live.”
Panay News tried to secure the counter-affidavit of Devicente but to no avail.
A reliable source, however, furnished this paper and other media entities with an hour-and-a-half closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage of the NBI “inspection” on Restia Warehouse, which showed that the NBI agents had forced their way into the warehouse, apparently without search warrant, despite the objection of the gatekeeper. They just loitered around and talked among themselves while the warehouse employees just watched. It was obvious they were waiting for whatever or whoever was coming.
An hour later, a news team from each of the two television networks arrived almost at the same time. As seen on the CCTV, the NBI agents spent around 20 minutes briefing the newsmen about their “raid.” That done, one of the NBI men ordered two warehouse laborers to pour rice from an NFA sack to an unlabeled one while the television cameras were rolling.
The news reports on local television that night played the “actual” re-bagging and the interview with Atty. Jeremiah Sargado, an NBI supervising agent, who stressed that they had indeed caught the warehousemen in the act./PN
