House to fast-track anti-smuggling bill
HOUSE Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez on Thursday vowed to push the immediate passage of a bill that seeks to impose stiffer penalties against farm smuggling.
“As soon as the start of the second regular session of the 19th Congress, we will immediately buckle down to work for the passage of the proposed amendments to the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act,” he said in a statement.
The bill is included in the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council’s (LEDAC) list of 20 priority measures targeted for congressional approval by December.
Lawmakers have said Republic Act 10845 has failed to prosecute agricultural smugglers since it was enacted in 2016.
During a Senate hearing in May, Customs Assistant Commissioner Vincent Philip C. Maronilla said the bureau had filed 179 smuggling cases, 142 of which involved large-scale operations.
Rosendo So, chairman of farmers’ group Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura, told the same hearing the government had lost P30 billion from smuggling.
The House bill seeks to improve anti-smuggling mechanisms and impose heavier penalties on farm smugglers, Mr. Romualdez said.
Prioritizing the anti-smuggling bill “manifests the commitment of Congress to support President Marcos’ drive against unfair business practices that hurt consumers and local farmers alike,” said Mr. Romualdez, who is the president’s cousin.
Several anti-farm smuggling bills are pending at the committee level of both the Senate and House of Representatives.
The Justice department on Tuesday said that it would create a task force to catch agricultural smugglers, based on Mr. Marcos Jr.’s order.
The House agriculture committee in May said the Philippine Vegetable Importers, Exporters and Vendors Association controlled the onion value chain that led to price manipulation. Onion prices hit as much as P700 a kilo last year.
The Bureau of Customs said in April it seized more than P19 billion worth of smuggled goods in the first quarter, P2.6 billion of which were farm products.
Congress will resume sessions on July 24. — Beatriz Marie D. Cruz
