Congressmen are moving to declare large-scale smuggling of agricultural products as economic sabotage and punishable by stiff sanctions.
Marikina City Rep. Romero Quimbo has filed House Bill 6259 or the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act of 2015 that aims to impose higher sanctions for large-scale smuggling of agricultural products to secure the agricultural sector, ensure food security and prices stability, protect the income and well-being of Filipino farmers, and regain government revenues lost, to be used for improving the delivery of social services for the country.
Quimbo’s proposal is a counterpart of Senate Bill 2923 filed by Senator Joseph Victor Ejercito.
“In my shared vision and commitment with Senator Ejercito to address the growing cases of smuggling of agricultural products, the passage of this bill is earnestly sought,” Quimbo said.
Citing a Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura report, Quimbo said from 2013 to 2014, the government incurred P64-billion foregone revenue due to widespread smuggling of agricultural products.
“This amount represents a P32-billion loss per year, which could have been used for the construction of approximately 21,000 classrooms, or 2,600 health centers. In fact, the amount of loss reported for these two years is more than enough to cover the budget of the Department of Agriculture for 2016, and with an excess sufficient to help rehabilitate our agricultural sector,” he added.
Based on a report titled “How Important is Agriculture in the Economy” written by Jose Ramon Albert, which was posted on the Philippine Statistics Authority website, Quimbo noted that from 1985 to 2009, poverty statistics showed most of those who were classified as poor belonged to the agricultural sector.
In the past two decades, the average share of agricultural employment to the total labor force was one-third or 36 percent, “and yet these agricultural workers receive the lowest average daily basic wage and salary compared to those in non-agriculture industries,” Quimbo said.
“This is appalling considering the agriculture industry is a significant driver of our country towards food security. This condition is aggravated by the occurrence of agricultural smuggling in that it takes away what little income that workers in the agricultural sector may have, as they have to compete with the prices that the agricultural smugglers offer to the market, thereby hampering this sector’s growth and sustainability,” he added.
“Recently, we initiated mechanisms to improve the Bureau of Customs through the passage of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act at the House of Representatives. Through my bill, we hope to complement the CMTA through the provision of stiffer penalties for agricultural smuggling to ensure the protection of the specific industry,” he said.
House Bill 6259 provides the crime of large-scale agricultural smuggling as economic sabotage, involving sugar, corn, pork, poultry, garlic, onion, carrots, fish, and cruciferous vegetables, in their raw state, or which have undergone the simple processes of preparation or preservation for the market, with a minimum amount of P1 million, or rice with a minimum amount of P10 million as valued by BoC.
The bill imposes the penalty of life imprisonment and a fine of twice the fair value of the smuggled agricultural product and the aggregate amount of the taxes, duties and other charges avoided, on any person involved in large-scale agricultural smuggling.