February 27, 2015
Manila Standard Times by A. Rimando | http://goo.gl/Xn1kaO
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Zamboanga Sibugay—Second district Rep. Lilia Macrohon-Nuno on Thursday asked for a full-blown investigation on the disappearance of close to 60 tons of smuggled sugar, worth over P2.5 million, allegedly under the custody of the Bureau of Customs district office here.
Nuno made the move after Mayor Ma. Isabelle Climaco-Salazar earlier disclosed that “only 326 of the 1,170 sacks of 50 kilos each or 58.5 tons of confiscated smuggled sugar were lately discovered in the custody of the local Customs district office.”
The smuggled sugar, reportedly shipped to this city from Malaysia, were intercepted early last week by combined police, military and Philippine Coast Guard personnel near a beach in Barangay Bolong, some 33 kilometers east of the city proper.
The legislator—a resident of Barangay Taluksangay, which is located about 10 kilometers from Bolong—said that “all those involved in the suspicious vanishment of the big volume of the sweet farm product must be held liable and, if necessary, accused accordingly.”
“What is happening to our community? After the rice smuggling, where a ranking member of the city council was allegedly involved, now it’s sugar,” Nuno said.
She said she would request the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food Security, headed by Sen. Cynthia Villar, to return to Zamboanga to also conduct a probe on the recent sugar smuggling.
Mayor Climaco earlier invited Villar to conduct a probe on a previous rice smuggling incident involving Thailand which rocked the City of Flowers and caused alarm to local rice farmers.
Latest reports here said Sen. Villar’s rice smuggling committee investigation is on going and that the results may be released soon.