The Vietnamese firm managing a vessel which was seized by the Philippine navy on Monday has said it has full legal papers on maritime transport activities of the ship, while another firm owning the ship also confirmed that it has all necessary shipping documents and bills of lading.

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Do Ngoc Binh, Director of TTC Hai Phong Co – the unit which manages and operates the M / V AN BIEN-89-ALCI, reconfirmed that the ship, of which Nguyen Van Loi is the captain, was detained in the Philippines, Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The Philippine navy on Monday seized the Vietnamese ship with 16 crewmembers on board as the vessel was suspected of smuggling rice from Vietnam to the island nation.

The cargo ship, carrying 116,000 bags of rice, was detained and inspected by Naval Forces Western Mindanao in the afternoon when sailing off the coast of Pata island, according to a statement from the Western Mindanao Command, known officially as the WestMinCom, part of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

The director of TTC Hai Phong Co., based in the northern coastal city of Hai Phong, said the ship is owned by Agribank Financial Leasing Company No 1 (ALC1) under Vietnamese lender Agribank.

The ship was delivered to the company on April 1, 2014. Before that date, the ship was under the management of Binh Minh Shipping and Trade Co., also headquartered in Hai Phong, Binh told Thanh Nien.

Before the incident, the ship had transported rice from the Mekong Delta province of An Giang to the Philippines under a contract with a partner that TTC Hai Phong declined to name.

Binh confirmed that TTC Hai Phong has full legal papers on maritime transport activities.

Regarding the goods on board, the owner will be accountable to the authorities, he said.

Nguyen Hong Long, CEO of ALC1, also told Thanh Nien that the captured ship has all necessary shipping documents and bills of landing.

However, he added that the ship was not licensed to export rice to the Philippines.

In addition to the Vietnamese ship, three other Philippine vessels were considered smuggling rice to the region, and were also arrested.

Authorities said they seized some weapons on board the three ships.

WestMinCom told GMA News that initially there were 152,000 bags of rice on the Vietnamese ship registered under Sunrise Commercial Shipbuilding Co. The rice is assigned to a person named Alfarsi Tan Hasiman in Jolo in Sulu province.

According to Philippine newswire Inquirer.net, Customs Deputy Commissioner Jessie Dellosa said “top Sulu politicians” were behind the attempt to smuggle the Vietnamese rice.

“Top Sulu politicians owned the smuggled rice,” Dellosa told the newswire on Tuesday.

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