The poultry and pig industry is not only in pain, it is also in danger of death. This is because of government inaction against smuggling. Two agencies—the Bureau of Customs (BoC) and the Department of Agriculture (DA)—must reverse this trend.
While there are good forces in both agencies, bad forces are winning in the import area. Many are convinced that President Noynoy is not fully aware of what is happening. Ditto with Customs Commissioner Rufino Biazon and Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala.
All three are of proven integrity. And yet the most obvious actions to prevent smuggling are not being done. The inconvenient truth is that many at the lower levels in both the BoC and DA are turning a blind eye to rampant smuggling. Those holding influential positions are conniving with the smugglers, getting rich in the process. The first group should be charged with criminal negligence; the second, with economic sabotage.
Importance
Why help the poultry and pig growers? Some say, “Because they are not as important as coconut and corn farmers. Besides, they are rich.”
Wrong on both counts!
The pig and poultry industry ranks second only to rice in agricultural output. These are 3.1 million people involved, 70 percent of whom are small backyard raisers. If they suffer, so do the other farmers who provide them with inputs from other sectors such as corn, coconut and cassava.
The government wonders why there are still so many poor people. This is because it saves with the right hand, and kills with the left. The Cash Transfer Program (CTP) alleviates poverty, while government inaction against smuggling worsens it. Aid is good, but justice is better. The CTP aid will cost the government P32 billion this year. The justice gained through fighting smuggling needs only political will. In fact, instead of money outflow, there will be an inflow of P3.7 billion from the tariff lost from smuggling.
Required actions
Some actions that must be taken are obvious. It is a shame that they are not being done. Surprisingly, they were implemented in the previous administration, though these were stopped when the anti-smuggling campaign was succeeding. They are now absent, to the delight of the smugglers.
An example is the delivery of the Inward Foreign Manifest (IFM) by the BoC to the DA. The IFM contains the identification of the product being imported, its price, its place of origin and the vessel in which it will arrive. BoC has this information two days before arrival, but refuses to give it to DA.
The IFM is a powerful tool to stop smuggling. We have used IFM very successfully to catch onion smugglers. All onion importation must have import permits, or else they are smuggled.
If the onion shipment recorded in the IFM does not have an import permit, it can automatically be apprehended. It is also clear proof of smuggling.
The BoC refuses to give the IFM to the DA, because the DA can use this to prevent smuggling. There are many other activities the BoC can do, such as a systematic method of determining the correct reference price with verified information from the DA. This will minimize today’s massive technical smuggling done through undervaluation because of wrong low reference prices.
DA officials at the lower levels are not exempt from blame. Despite Secretary Alcala’s praiseworthy anti-smuggling directives, these officials execute a “death by slowness” strategy. An example is the need to accredit and monitor all the cold storage plants, where the smuggled products find entry into the domestic market.
The DA must also acknowledge that it has a prime responsibility to stop smuggling because it has the check and balance role to prevent BoC officials from conniving with smugglers. For example, the DA should aggressively ask for the IFM from BoC, which it is not doing.
Meeting P-Noy
With the rampant smuggling going on, the poultry and pig industry will not survive. From 2008 to 2011, poultry imports increased to 127.3 million MT from 45.8 million MT; pork, to 169.2 million MT from 109.4 million MT. In only eight months, the swine industry lost P8.7 billion. Many of the small backyard raisers have lost their livelihood and have joined the ranks of the poor.
Because of their dire straits, these backyard raisers should be granted meeting with President Aquino, together with Biazon and Alcala. This way, the inconvenient truth of smuggling can be made known and the necessary anti-smuggling actions taken. If this does not happen, the pain of the poultry and pig industry will worsen, resulting in its demise and more extreme poverty.
The author is chairman of Agriwatch, former secretary for presidential flagship programs and projects, and former undersecretary of agriculture and trade. For inquiries, e-mail agriwatch_phil@yahoo.com or telefax 02 85221.