Smuggling of farm products worsens

The value of agricultural commodities smuggled into the Philippines surged to some P182 billion from 2010 to 2014, almost double the contraband valued at P95 billion from 2005 to 2009, according to the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (Sinag).

Sinag chair Rosendo So said Friday that this meant that the government lost some P60 billion to P80 billion on the importation of rice, pork, sugar, chicken, onion, carrots and garlic—considering that tariffs on these items were set at 30 percent to 40 percent.

Sinag groups at least 33 organizations of farmers, agribusiness operators and party-list groups.

So alleged that this smuggling frenzy” was the legacy of President Aquino administration to the agriculture sector.

“Since day one of his administration, we have urged President Aquino to look into the pestilence of smuggling, which is ‘daang madumi’ rather than ‘daang matuwid,’” So said in an interview.

“After five years and four successive chiefs of the Bureau of Customs, there is no doubt that this administration has failed the agriculture sector in this regard,” he added.

Citing data from both the government—the bureaus of customs, animal industry and plant industry—as well as the United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database, So said smuggling “has flourished and continues to thrive under this government.”

According to Sinag, smuggled milled rice represented about half of the value of agricultural contraband in the past five years at a total of 2.8 million tons worth P83.2 billion.

“In the first six months of 2015, an additional 365,000 tons of rice worth P10.9 billion were brought into the country illegally,” he said.

For 2010-2014, Sinag pegged the value of smuggled pig meat at P35.5 billion—some 203,000 tons—with an additional P5.6 billion worth of pork (32,000 tons) spirited in during the first semester this year.

The group said that, compared to 2004-2009, the value of smuggled rice ballooned by 161 percent from P31.9 billion while that of pork swelled by 91 percent from P18.6 billion.

Also, in 2010-2014, the value of smuggled processed chicken jumped 66 percent to P11.4 billion and that of illegally shipped carrots by 465 percent to P305 million.

On the other hand, the value of smuggled sugar fell by 18 percent to P24.4 billion while that of onion plunged by 73 percent to P1.9 billion.

Sinag said there was no comparative figure for garlic in 2005-2009 as the smuggling of the aromatic seasoning was not as prevalent back then as it had been recently.

“Instead of protecting and promoting the local farm industry, which is the only source of livelihood for millions of Filipinos, the government apparently has no intention of curbing smuggling,” So said.

He repeated calls for the new chief of the Department of Justice, Alfredo Caguioa, to immediately file charges against alleged rice smuggler Davidson Bangayan and other personalities “long-identified by the Senate Committee on Agriculture as early as 2012, spanning two Congresses, [such as] the alleged onion and garlic cartel leader Leah Cruz, rice traders David and Judilyn Lim, Elizabeth Faustino, Eleanor Rodriguez and Leah Echeveria.”