Senator Cynthia Villar said Republic Act No. 10845 or the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act of 2016 should be amended to include profiteering, hoarding and smuggling in its list of crimes involving economic sabotage.
This was among the notable points in Villar’s sponsorship of Committee Report No. 25 Tuesday night following the probe on the sudden spike in the price of onions by the Senate committee on agriculture and food.
Villar, chair of the said committee, said amendments should be explicit and express, and should “not leave room for the implementers to interpret the intent and spirit of the law.”
Villar also proposed in her report the creation of an Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Task Force to serve and protect the entire agricultural sector, not only the Onion Industry.
“And to give the Task Force the muscle to bring these smugglers, profiteers, and hoarders to justice, a Special Court was proposed to be created to specifically try and hear economic sabotage cases with a special team of prosecutors to assist the Task Force in the expeditious prosecution,” Villar said.
According to the senator, this will ensure preferential attention to cases of economic sabotage so that profiteers, hoarders and smugglers will be brought to justice and speedy trial will be rendered.
As for importation, she suggested that if the same is necessary, approval of importation permits must be logically scheduled so as not to impede and completely compete with local production and harvest.
The import volume, she said, must be correctly established and such must be only for purposes of providing the needed supply in the market.
The senator said it is high-time that we have an Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Task Force and Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Court.
“With these in place, we will have a watchdog in the agricultural sector to ensure that whoever manipulates the price of agricultural commodities to the detriment of the small farmers and consumers, will be brought to justice accordingly,” she said.
It can be recalled that in October 2022, the market price of onions started to increase uncontrollably and later on skyrocketed to P750 per kilo during the Christmas Season, making Philippine Onions the world’s most expensive. Senator Imee R. Marcos filed Senate Resolution No. 350 and Villar’s Committee conducted a Senate hearing on Jan. 16; 2023 on the soaring market prices of local onions.
She pointed out that the profiteering and hoarding in the onion industry have run rampant.
“Nothing earned from their produce, the farmers bewail their twist of faith, they have now become consumers as well, buying their own produce at very exorbitant prices.”
With the amendment, the senator assured this should never happen again during the holiday season this year, and the coming years. “This should never happen again,” he added.