Senator Cynthia Villar hopes to deter smuggling and abusive market practices once Senate Bill No. (SBN) 2432 or the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act is signed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. into law.
These illegal practices, she said, threaten the well-being of agricultural producers and welfare of the consumers, and the economy as a whole.
Villar, chairperson of the Committee on Agriculture, Food, and Agrarian Reform, said the bill defines the crime of agricultural economic sabotage as any act or activity that disrupts the economy by creating artificial shortage, promoting excessive importation, manipulating prices and supply, evading payment or underpaying tariffs and customs duties, threatening local production and food security, gaining excessive or exorbitant profits by exploiting situations, creating scarcity, and entering into agreements that defeat fair competition to the prejudice of the public.
The senator, principal author and sponsor of the measure, said the following agricultural and fishery products are covered under the bill: rice, corn, beef and other ruminants, pork, poultry, garlic, onion, carrots, other vegetables, fruits, fish, salt and other aquatic products, in their raw state or which have undergone the simple process of preparation or preservation for the market within the primary and post-harvest stages of the food supply chain, palm oil, palm olein, raw and refined sugar, and tobacco.
Under the bill, the crime of agricultural smuggling as economic sabotage is committed when the value of each, or a combination of agricultural and fishery products smuggled by a person is at least P3 million.
Agricultural smuggling as used in this measure shall be committed through any of the following acts:
(a) Importing or bringing into the Philippines agricultural and fishery products without the required import clearance from the regulatory agencies;
(b) Using import clearance of persons other than those specifically named in the permit;
(c) Using fake, false, fictitious or fraudulent import clearance, shipping documents or any other transport documentation;
(d) Selling, lending, leasing, assigning, consenting to or allowing the use of import clearance of corporations, non-government organizations, associations, cooperatives, partnerships, or single proprietorships by other persons;
(e) Misclassification, undervaluation or misdeclaration upon the filing of import entry declaration or transport documentation with the Bureau of Customs in order to evade the payment of correct taxes and duties due the government;
(f) Organizing or using dummy corporations, non-government organizations, associations, cooperatives, partnerships, or single proprietorships for the purpose of acquiring import clearance;
(g) Knowingly transporting or storing smuggled agricultural and fishery products;
(h) Acting as a broker of the importer; or
(i) Allowing the use of a private port, fish port, fish landing site, resort, and/or airport to perpetrate economic sabotage.
Agricultural hoarding as economic sabotage is committed by a person or combination of persons by having stocks of agricultural and fishery products in excess of thirty 30 percent of their normal inventory level two weeks after the declaration of an abnormal situation.
Agricultural profiteering as economic sabotage is the sale or offering for sale of each agricultural and fishery products at a price at least 10percent in excess of the daily price index at the time of the declaration of an abnormal situation.
Citing the act, Villar said there shall be prima facie engagement in cartel as economic sabotage through any agreement between two or more persons competing for the same market and dealing in the same agricultural and fishery products.