Authorities found 60K bags of suspected hoarded sugar in Bulacan warehouses — Palace

Authorities have discovered at least 60,000 bags of suspected hoarded sugar from four warehouses in Guiguinto, Bulacan, the Office of the Press Secretary (OPS) said on Saturday. 

In a statement, the OPS said Bureau of Customs (BOC) personnel inspected four warehouses at T12 Polo Land in Barangay Tabang on Saturday afternoon. 

The OPS said authorities found imported sugar from Thailand in the inspected warehouses at 50 kilograms per sack. 

At least two of the warehouses were half-full, while one warehouse had sacks of sugar neatly stacked up to the roof, the statement added.

The OPS, citing the warehouse caretaker, said the Thai sugar had been delivered from the Manila International Container Terminal (MICT) on Friday evening. 

It said that the import permit used for the seized sugar was the allocation for Sugar Order No. 3 issued last February by the Sugar Regulatory Board. 

"Customs officials are now conducting verification on the authenticity of the importation documents presented to them by the warehouse caretaker in Guiguinto, Bulacan," the OPS said. 

BOC agents in Subic Port earlier prevented the alleged smuggling of 7,021 metric tons of sugar after they learned that the import permit was "recycled." 

Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles previously said that the BOC and other agencies are continuously inspecting sugar warehouses, in line with the President’s intensified campaign against the illegal importation of agricultural products. 

She also disclosed that at least one of the warehouses recently inspected by the BOC was not registered with the Sugar Regulatory Administration. 

According to the OPS, the BOC, the SRA, and the Department of Agriculture all conducted simultaneous operations over the course of two days to check sugar warehouses in Deparo, Caloocan City; Balut in Tondo and San Nicolas in Manila; Rosales, Pangasinan; San Fernando, Pampanga; Ibaan, Batangas; and Davao. 

"The huge volume of sugar discovered by authorities in the various inspected warehouses in Luzon has led Malacañang to conclude that the sugar shortage is artificial, brought about by the hoarding of sugar [by] traders who want to rake in huge profits from the sudden spike in sugar prices," the OPS said. —VBL, GMA News