Metro Manila, Philippines — Container vans with around 23,000 metric tons of imported rice have been “overstaying” at the Manila International Container Terminal (MICT), the Department of Agriculture (DA) said Monday, Sept. 23.

In a Malacañang briefing, DA spokesperson Arnel de Mesa said this was the cumulative amount of flagged unreleased rice imports inside 888 container vans at the MICT.

“This is only about 0.75% nung total na imported na bigas na pumasok,” De Mesa told reporters. “To date, according sa data ng Bureau of Plant Industry, nasa 3,093,000 metric tons ‘yung pumasok.”

[Translation: This is only about 0.75% of the total imported rice that entered the country… To date, according to data from the Bureau of Plant Industry, around 3,093,000 metric tons have been imported.]

The Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) said around 300 containers were pulled out over the weekend.

PPA General Manager Jay Santiago said consignees might be waiting for higher rice prices before releasing the imports. He also said storage fees inside ports are seen to be cheaper than those charged by warehouses elsewhere.

“May isang container dyan na 275 days, may isa na 161 days, meron dyan 26, meron dyan 2, may 8, so iba-iba siya, ano?” Santiago said. “So, ang gagawin natin diyan, binigyan natin ng pagkakataon lahat ng consignee hanggang katapusan ngayong buwan, ng September 30.”

[Translation: There is a container with rice imports that have been staying for 275 days, another with 161 days, there’s also one with 26, 2, 8 — so it’s really with different dates. What we will do is to give consignees a chance to pull out the rice imports until the end of the month.]

Santiago said the PPA will report to the DA by Oct. 1 the number of containers of rice that have stayed in the port for over 30 days. He added these will be endorsed to the Bureau of Customs for action.

“Gusto lamang naming i-assure ang sambayanan na wala po tayong currently nae-experience na port congestion po sa ating mga pantalan,”Santiago also said.

[Translation: We want to assure the public that there is no current port congestion.]

Is this hoarding?

Officials from DA and PPA did not directly answer if complaints, including hoarding and profiteering, will be filed against consignees with overstaying containers.

“We’ll let the proper authorities handle that,” De Mesa said.

But in the plenary debates of the House of Representatives for the DA’s budget proposal, the agency’s sponsor explained this was not a case of hoarding.

“There is no hoarding, we have sufficient supply outside and it has not affected the cost of rice as of the current time,” said House Deputy Majority Leader and Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin.

Garin, who speaks on behalf of the DA as the budget sponsor, said some of the shipments have not yet stayed over 30 days that’s why they cannot also be considered hoarding.

She said the recent three consecutive storms also caused the delay of shipments that resulted in “bottlenecks” in releasing the imported grain.

“The DA is giving their assurance that this is a temporary problem and they are on top of the situation and they will never, ever tolerate hoarding to any extent,” Garin said.

“They have already come up with unwritten rules and unwritten arrangements that the Bureau of Customs and the PPA will do the push for the release of this,” Garin said.

The DA earlier said that “the delay in releasing the imported rice has raised concerns over food security, especially as the country faces ongoing inflation pressures.”

As of Sept. 20, DA monitoring showed imported rice retailing for ₱42 to ₱65 in Metro Manila markets. Local commercial rice costs ₱45 to ₱65.