Prosecute smugglers, protectors

When the Senate resumed its session Monday last week, its investigation into issues hounding the Bureau of Customs (BOC) revealed that high-ranking government officials and politicians were allegedly behind the illegal importation of vegetables from China that has pushed the local industry nearer to bankruptcy.

According to Agriculture Assistant Secretary Federico Laciste Jr., “highly placed” personalities had tried to persuade him from filing charges related to seized smuggled farm products. His offer to reveal their names in an executive session was, however, turned down. “If that will put you in trouble, you can write it down and we will handle it,” Senate President Vicente Sotto III told him. The following day, Sotto, who raised the issue of smuggled agricultural products in a privilege speech in December last year, said that he had yet to receive the list promised by Laciste.

Senators grilled the BOC and Department of Agriculture (DA) officials for their supposed failure to stop the influx of imported farm products, mainly carrots, onions, and strawberries, even after Sotto’s exposé. Noted Sen. Francis Pangilinan: “We have a situation where agencies take no action even when smuggling is brazenly committed. So aside from the fact that the BOC and the DA have been compromised, there are untouchables.”

Reacting to revelations that “those involved must be close to the powers that be,” Agriculture Secretary William Dar issued a statement, vowing to “act swiftly and decisively to reprimand those involved among our ranks, officials and staff. If found guilty, we will file the appropriate administrative charges against these individuals.”

Not to be left out, the House of Representatives assured farmers through ways and means committee chair and Albay Rep. Joey Salceda that it has been working with the BOC and the DA to fight agricultural smuggling since February 2021. Salceda cited his panel’s three-point “moving forward” plan to curb the illegal entry of agricultural products, such as holding update hearings with the BOC, the DA, and other agencies to follow up its requests; forming a technical working group on possible recommendations that can be turned over to the next administration, and finalizing a joint memorandum circular between the agencies to strengthen measures against this problem.

With the legislative mill moving too slowly and Senate inquiries able to do only so much, seeking redress from Congress may not be the best response to this issue. Many times, blame-passing is all that comes out of the efforts of both chambers. Meanwhile, as lawmakers hold lengthy debates as they craft measures to address smuggling, farmers continue to suffer. According to Agot Balanoy, the public relations officer of the League of Associations at the La Trinidad Vegetable Trading Areas (LALTVTA), the influx of smuggled vegetables has continued despite reports of confiscation made by concerned government agencies.

Last week, LALTVTA said local vegetable farmers were losing an average of P2.5 million a day after daily orders declined by up to 40 percent due to the entry of smuggled vegetables. “Despite an ongoing Senate hearing on the illegal importation of agricultural products and despite lodging our formal complaints with the proper concerned government agencies, smuggling has not stopped, and smugglers are so brazen to continue the illegal trade to this day,” lamented the group, the biggest agriculture-related organization in Benguet with around 10,000 members.

The fact is that the perpetrators and their protectors are known to the DA and most likely, the BOC. Why doesn’t the executive branch use its agencies to go after them? As Sotto aptly put it: “It should be the Office of the President no less; it should [put] its foot down on this issue of smuggling in the [BOC] and [the DA].” He added that the executive agencies’ action “must not only end up with heads rolling, but [the BOC and the DA] should shape up.”

The needed action really rests on the executive department that is mandated to enforce the law. It’s high time that perpetrators—including their facilitators and protectors—of the rampant smuggling of agricultural products be named and made accountable. Let them feel the full force of the law. It’s up to Malacañang to stop this rampant smuggling by cracking the whip on the BOC and the DA, whose personnel are in cahoots with the perpetrators in allowing the importation of cheap vegetables at the expense of local farmers who have suffered long enough. Name them and prosecute them now!