President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Friday urged the public to report groups or individuals engaged in smuggling and hoarding of agricultural products to the authorities, which he had blamed for the rising prices of the vital commodities.
“No matter how big the syndicate is, just like the one we seized in a pier in Zamboanga last month, it is no match to our collective power in combating smugglers,” Mr. Marcos said in his speech during the distribution of smuggled rice in Capiz.
“If you have information against those involved in these transactions, don’t be afraid to report them,” he added.
President Marcos said his administration has been coordinating with lawmakers regarding imposing stiffer penalties on agricultural and economic sabotage.
He earlier certified as urgent the proposed legislation defining agricultural economic sabotage and imposing more severe penalties for violators.
In the same speech, Mr. Marcos directed the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Finance (DOF) to hasten the release of benefits and assistance for local farmers.
More than 10,000 rice farmers from the province of Capiz would receive financial aid through the Rice Farmers Financial Assistance (RFFA) program this year, he said.
The rice farmers are part of the identified 2.3 million small rice farmer beneficiaries who are registered in the Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBSA) as of June 30, 2023.
Each beneficiary will receive P5,000 in financial assistance sourced from the excess tariff collection from rice importations in 2022, amounting to around P12.7 billion.
Beneficiaries include those in the farm cooperatives associations (FCAs), irrigators associations (IAs), agrarian reform beneficiaries organizations (ARBOs), small water impounding systems associations (SWISAs), and other farm groups.
The Department of Agriculture (DA) earlier told senators it has filed cases against at least 40 alleged onion smugglers.
“We have around 20 consignees who are on deck for filing cases under Republic Act (RA) No. 10845,” said DA Assistant Secretary James Layug during the Senate Finance subcommittee hearing on the agency’s P197.84-billion proposed budget for 2024.
“Right now, we have already filed 40 cases under the Anti-Agriculture Smuggling Law, another 10 under the Food Safety Act, and one more under the violation of the meat code,” he said.
These cases are currently under resolution in various prosecutors’ offices, including those in Bataan, Manila, and Batangas, Layug added.
“We are also coordinating with the special prosecutor’s office created by the DOJ specifically for handling smuggling cases,” said Layug.
In July, President Marcos ordered the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to investigate the smuggling of onions and other agricultural products following the surge in onion prices in 2022.
The DOJ, in turn, formed the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Task Force and created a special team of prosecutors primarily focused on protecting the entire agricultural sector, not just the onion industry.
Last year, the prices per kilo of onions ranged from P500 to P720 in some markets.
These prices increased from P140 in September, P280 in November, P300 from December 12 to 16, P380 from December 19 to 23, and P720 on December 28.
