THE Bureau of Customs on Thursday filed smuggling charges before the Department of Justice against 31 officers of four multipurpose cooperatives in central Luzon for attempting to smuggle over P90 million worth of rice into the country.

The 78,000 bags, or P93.6 million worth of rice came from Vietnam and were seized Legaspi post in Albay province on September 2, 2012.

Customs Commissioner Rozzano Rufino “Ruffy” Biazon said in a statement that the said shipment didn’t have the required permit and violated section 101 and 3601 of the Tariffs and Customs Code of the Philippines.

The amount of rice also was beyond the import quote allocation balances of the cooperatives.

“We will never allow any multipurpose cooperative to exploit their rice importation allocation privileges for illegal activities. We will carefully review the entries of all rice importations to ensure that these are covered with the required permits and importation quota allocations are not violated,” Biazon said.

The Customs bureau filed charges against Orlando Manimbot, Juanito Mangilit, Jospeh Guevarra, Alfredo Manimbo, Tommy Navarro, Jaime Bitangcol and Efren Bulaon, all directors of Kapatirang Takusa Multi-Purpose Cooperative.

The cooperative was the consignee for 21,000 bags, or P25.2 million worth of rice but the said cooperative has a quota allocation balance of only 19,000 bags per importation.

Officers of the Ugnayan Emily Alabado, Christopher Hernandez, Editha Alabado, Teresita Manlastas, Arly Guevarra, Luciano Alabado and Santiago Francisco of Magbubukid ng San Isidro Cooperative in Pampanga province were also charged for being the consignee of 21,000 bags, even if they are only allowed to import 6,800 bags as allocation quota balance.

Cipriano Evangelista, Ernesto Gonzales, Guillermo Marcelo, Edgardo Evangelista, Henry Ochoco, Milagros Pelayo, Nelson Evangelista, Arden Evangelista and Jessie de la Cruz, officers of Malampampang Concerned Citizens Multi-Purpose Cooperative based in Bulacan province were also charged after the Customs bureau, found out that the cooperative imported 18,000 bags, even if their quota is only at 6,900 bags.

Samahang Magsasaka Kapampangan at Katagalogan Multi-Purpose Cooperative officers Maximo Hernancez, John Ray Retobado, Ponciano Hernandez, Dominador Lalu, Felipe Mangilit, Michael Manliclic and Danilo Santos were also charged after they tried to smuggle 18,000 bags, 4,000 higher than their 14,000 bags-quota.