AUTHORITIES discovered alleged smuggled rice and sugar during operations in Caloocan City and Bulacan amid the relentless effort of the administration to bring down the price of sweetener in the country.The Office of the Press Secretary (OPS) said operatives of the Bureau of Customs conducted a surprise inspection at a warehouse in Caloocan City on Monday morning, August 22, resulting in the discovery of hundreds of bags of alleged smuggled rice and sugar.The products were owned by Melissa and Benito Chua, who initially denied, along with their personnel, customs officials from getting inside the warehouse.The OPS said the rice and sugar were being repacked to make it appear that they were locally procured.On Saturday, August 20, four warehouses in Guiguinto, Bulacan were also inspected by customs personnel, resulting in the discovery of 60,000 bags containing 50 kilograms of sugar each.The “suspected hoarded” sugar was imported from Thailand.Similar inspections were also conducted in several warehouses in Tondo and San Nicolas in Manila; Rosales, Pangasinan; San Fernando, Pampanga; and Ibaan, Batangas, Subic and Davao.“The huge volume of sugar discovered by Customs agents in the various warehouses in Luzon has led Malacañang to conclude that the sugar shortage is artificial, brought about by the hoarding of sugar traders who wanted to rake-in huge profits from the sudden spike in sugar prices,” the OPS said.The conduct of inspection came amid the reported scarcity of sugar supply in the country that resulted in its price soaring to up to P100 per kilo over the past weeks.The low supply was allegedly due to the damage caused by Typhoon Odette in the sugarcane crops in December 2021.Major supermarkets, however, heeded to the call of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. to lower the price of sugar to P70 per kilo.Amid the reported shortage, Marcos waylaid the importation of 300,000 metric tons of sugar under the Sugar Order 4, which was issued by the Sugar Regulatory Board.While Marcos serves as the board’s chairman as the concurrent secretary of the Department of Agriculture, Malacañang said the President did not approve SO 4, deeming it “illegal.”During a probe conducted jointly by the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability, and Agriculture and Food on Monday, resigned Agriculture Undersecretary Leocadio Sebastian, one of the signatories of SO 4, said he received a memorandum issued by Executive Vic Rodriguez on July 15 authorizing him to sign such an order on behalf of the President.Sebastian stepped down from post after Malacañang declared SO 4 illegal.”The secretary is ex-officio chair of the SRA (Sugar Regulatory Administration) and I therefore participated in good faith in the board referenda of SRA. As a member of the SRA board, I signed it,” he said.Rodriguez has yet to comment on the matter.Sebastian said the shortage of sugar in the country gave him the impression that its importation is urgent and that Marcos is in favor of SO 4. (SunStar Philippines)