Benguet Rep. Eric Yap has co-authored House Resolution 108 with Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte urging the Lower House committee on agriculture and food to conduct further inquiry on vegetable smuggling.
The House resolution has the inquiry in aid of legislation would help in the filing of cases against smugglers.
“It is imperative for the concerned agencies to ensure the cases being filed against identified consignees of the smuggled agricultural crops are air tight to qualify as economic sabotage for them to face the consequences of their illegal activities that tend to impact on the established sources of livelihood of our farmers,” the House resolution stated.
The Department of Agriculture reported P667.5 million worth of agri-fishery goods were smuggled into the country from 2019 to 2022.
The Bureau of Customs also seized P1.99 billion worth of agricultural products in 542 raids since 2019.
The DA, BOC, Department of Trade and Industry, and Bureau of Internal Revenue also formed a task force in September 2021 to investigate the sudden proliferation of smuggled vegetables in the local markets.
The BOC has raided a warehouse in Catmon, Malabon that resulted in the seizure of approximately P4.72M worth of smuggled agricultural products such as, broccoli, carrots, and red onions.
In April 2022, around 100 kilograms of imported carrots from China and 90 kilograms of imported ginger being sold in Divisoria and Tondo in Manila were also confiscated.
In June 2022, shipments of Danury Consumer Goods Trading and Jeroce Consumer Goods were seized at the Manila International Container Port after the BOC detected misdeclared goods including P75M worth of frozen duck and chicken parts and P49M worth of pork and poultry products, respectively.
Benguet vegetable traders said smuggling from China has been going on since 2007 in spite of the passage of Republic Act 10845, also known as the “Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act of 2016,” which provides agricultural smuggling involving sugar, corn, pork, poultry, garlic, onion, carrots, fish, and cruciferous vegetables in its raw state, or which have undergone the simple processes of preparation or preservation for the market is considered as economic sabotage with a minimum amount of P1M, or rice with a minimum amount P10M.
During the Senate committee of the whole inquiry last June, a list of individuals, including several BOC and DA officials, allegedly involved in agricultural smuggling, has been submitted to the Office of the Ombudsman. The list was also earlier submitted to President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., who also heads the DA. – Ofelia C. Empian
