SENATOR Francis Pangilinan on Tuesday called for the identification of financiers behind the large-scale smuggling of agricultural products as he presided over a public hearing of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food, and Agrarian Reform.
Pangilinan said agricultural smuggling reflected other corruption scandals that involved accomplices in government, the private sector, and politics.
“The flood control scandal has accomplices in government, accomplices in the private sector, and accomplices in politics. It’s not far-fetched to think the same might happen here,” Pangilinan said, citing the anomalous entry of smuggled mackerel and onions valued at P133 million.
He stressed that such large shipments could not have entered the country without financial backers. “I don’t believe that the P133 million worth of smuggled mackerel and onions that came in had no financier,” he said.
