Successful pork holiday

Most backyard swine producers who did not sell pork on April 27 to 28 consider their Pork Holiday a big success.

Many believed that significant results were achieved, which would not have been possible otherwise. However, their success showed the failure of some government institutions.

During the past six weeks, swine producers have used several measures to stop the rampant smuggling that is causing them irreparable damage.

Having gotten little help from lower government officials and government institutions like the National Agriculture and Fisheries Council (NAFC), the swine producers funded two full-page ads on March 28 and April 2 asking for anti-smuggling action.

There was no satisfactory response.

They then held a national conference from April 19 to 21 in Cebu. Some officials came, but still no result.

Finally the backyard raisers took the desperate and costly move of staging a Pork Holiday.

According to Durian Tan of the Swine Development Board, it was a big sacrifice to lose pork sales for two days. The intention was not “economic sabotage” as some claimed.

Instead, it was to alert the government and the nation to what might happen if rampant smuggling kills the pork industry.

Today, 70 percent of pork producers are small backyard raisers. In the last two years, 20 percent have lost their livelihood because of smuggling.

DA results

After the Pork Holiday, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala ordered four key measures.

1.) The DA will provide accurate reference values on a monthly basis for swine products to correct the currently undervalued numbers the Bureau of Customs (BoC) uses. For example, the DA recommends an average reference price for pork products of P109.20/kg, instead of the P27.30/kg reference value the BoC has.

2.) The DA Quarantine Officer will now take an active role in stopping smuggling attempts. For example, he will look at the price the importer uses and compare it with the correct reference price, as well as the importer’s tax payment record. If there is something irregular, he will withhold the quarantine clearance.

3.) The DA Quarantine Officer will inspect the import documents before the BoC makes its final assessment and evaluation. This is a practice in other countries, which will now be done here.

4.) DA will accredit and monitor all cold storage establishments. This is where smuggled goods are kept to avoid detection. DA intends to do this for other sectors such as fisheries, which is similarly victimized by smuggling.

DoF-BoC results

Last May 3, swine producers held a press conference to report on DA’s favorable action after the Pork Holiday. However, they said that they would stage a five-day Pork Holiday if they still got no satisfactory action from the BoC, which is under the supervision of the Department of Finance (DoF). United Broiler Raisers Association (UBRA) President Gregorio San Diego said the poultry sector would follow suit.

To the credit of Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, he called a meeting the very next working day to address this issue. Since he was not feeling well, he sent Finance Undersecretary Carlos Carag to meet with BoC Commissioner Rufino Biazon, Agriculture Secretary Alcala, and pork producers.

This meeting achieved three significant results.

1.) The BoC finally agreed to give the Inward Foreign Manifest (IFM) automatically to DA. Since the IFM provides critical import data two days before the shipment arrives, the DA will now have the information necessary to confiscate the smuggled goods and charge the suspected smugglers upon the imported product’s arrival.

2.) The BoC will have a task force that will give special attention to technical smuggling through undervaluation by using correct reference values.

3.) The review and cleaning up of the accredited importers list, which is full of fly-by-night operators who are usually the smugglers, is now given as a special task to the BoC Intelligence Division under Deputy Commissioner Danilo Lim.

Conclusion

The April 27-28 Pork Holiday achieved significant results from the DA. The announcement of a possible five-day Pork Holiday also got a favorable response from DoF-BoC. Thus, this plan is now indefinitely postponed.

If we want a progressive country, Pork Holidays should not occur. They show that the government institutions are not working as they should. It is time that government becomes proactive, follow P-Noy’s directive of “Ikaw ang boss ko,” and strengthen its institutions.

One structural suggestion is to create a Private-Public Partnership against Smuggling (PPPAS) oversight group that will meet monthly to recommend and monitor anti-smuggling action. This way, Pork Holidays will be a thing of the past.

(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.)