Government betrayal of farmers
When the government betrays the farmers, they get disillusioned. Some even consider violent means, which the Alyansa Agrikultura (AA) condemns.
It is critical that good forces in the government overcome the bad ones so that this betrayal will not continue to happen.
Last Tuesday, a raid was conducted at Landmark Makati, where banned and smuggled poultry products from China were confiscated. That is good news.
The bad news is the raid was sabotaged.
The AA, together with one of its 42 member organizations, the United Broiler Raisers Association (UBRA) under chair Gregorio San Diego, had submitted to the Bureau of Customs (BoC) and the Department of Agriculture (DA) a list of eight establishments that had violated the law.
As proof, the AA submitted receipts of smuggled goods from these establishments. The AA emphasized that the list must be kept confidential. This was not done. When the raid was about to take place, the three targeted establishments on the list had taken the smuggled goods off their shelves.
With the help of a DA official, the AA requested raids on two other establishments that were not included on the list. Thus, a raid was done at Landmark.
As for the second establishment, the DA director said he could not go there. Instead, he ordered DA personnel to conduct the raid and confiscate the smuggled goods. When the second raid took place, no such personnel were around. Consequently, the planned confiscation in the other seven establishments could not be implemented.
As of this writing, because of the media publicity on the first raid, the establishments have since withdrawn the smuggled goods. No one has been charged.
The AA reported these violations to the concerned DA bureau directors (who may not have told the agriculture secretary) on Feb. 11 during the AF 2025 Conference. But because nothing had been done, and the peak Christmas buying season was approaching, the AA took it upon themselves to present the proof to the government. But a leak led to the botched raids.
In a glaring example of how the government belittles and betrays farmers, there was an antismuggling raid that was scheduled to start at 8 a.m. in Divisoria. KASAMNE onion farmers, under general manager Rudy Maningas, had already bought smuggled onions earlier that morning from five identified retailers.
The BoC group arrived eight hours later at 3 p.m. The DA’s Bureau of Plant Industry personnel showed up in the morning, but were no longer present during the actual raid. By the time the raid started, the five identified establishments had closed down. Despite the proof of violation AA provided on these establishments, the BoC never charged any of them.
One can therefore understand the onion farmers’ anger. They not only lost their livelihood due to rampant smuggling, they were also made to wait for seven hours, while the proof they presented was disregarded by the BoC.
Thanks to DA Secretary Proceso Alcala and BoC Commissioner Rufino Biazon, corruption has decreased in the DA and BoC. But there are still DA and BoC officials, some of whom have cases filed against them, holding important positions and are reported to be misleading Alcala and Biazon.
We recommend that Alcala and Biazon review the recent cases where the government sabotaged the private sector. They can then file charges, or at least reassign the guilty personnel to less sensitive posts. Some farmers accuse certain government officials of hypocrisy. Unless the wrongs are corrected immediately, more people may start believing the harsh words of these farmers.
Please text or call (0918) 930-2118 or e-mail [email protected] if you see any poultry (including eggs) or pork products from China, which are banned for health reasons, or any other smuggling activity you know of.
(The author is chairman of Agriwatch, former secretary for presidential flagship programs and projects, and former undersecretary for agriculture, and trade and industry. For inquiries and suggestions, e-mail [email protected] or telefax [02] 85221.)
