|
By William B. Depasupil, Reporter
STRESSING that she wanted results, President
Gloria Arroyo has ordered the Anti-rice Hoarding Task Force of the
Department of Justice to speed up the prosecution of unscrupulous
rice traders charged with rice hoarding.
Mrs. Arroyo issued the order on Wednesday to
Director Ricardo Diaz, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)
regional director for intelligence and concurrent task force chief,
during a briefing at the Justice department.
The President also directed Diaz to focus their
operations on rice traders, not on millers so as not to disrupt the
continuous supply of the staple in the market.
Many rice millers in the provinces had stopped
buying palay (unhusked rice) from rice farmers following raids
conducted by the NBI on some of their warehouses, on suspicion that
they were hoarding the grains.
Slow prosecution to affect farmers
The President has expressed concern that if
millers stop buying palay, farmers will be forced to sell their
produce at a much lower price.
During the briefing, Mrs. Arroyo expressed
disappointment on the snail-paced progress of the cases filed
against suspected rice hoarders, following a report by the task
force chief that they had given another 10-day extension to 18 rice
traders to file their counter-affidavits.
“Are you obliged to give them a 10-day
extension?” the President asked.
After cutting short the briefing given her, the
President sternly said that she wanted the task force to expedite
the prosecution cases against suspected rice hoarders.
She told the panel that she would be back at the
office of the Justice department on May 9 to check on the status of
the cases.
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said he had
earlier issued a similar instruction to the task force.
“She just wants to be sure that the task force
and the NBI are doing things accordingly so that the cases are
resolved immediately,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez agreed with the observation of the
President that the cases against the suspected rice hoarders appear
to be moving slow
|
