BPI doesn’t set prices, says agri exec in garlic case
MANILA, Philippines–Clarito M. Barron, the agriculture official in the middle of the garlic importation controversy, denied Tuesday he and other Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) officials were behind last year’s price spike of the flavorful bulb and had solicited bribes in exchange for import permits.
Barron, who was BPI director when garlic prices skyrocketed to P300 a kilo in the middle of last year, said in a press conference the agency had no authority to regulate prices.
Latest Department of Agriculture (DA) data showed garlic prices currently ranged between P80 and P100 a kilo.
“The BPI’s mandate is to prevent the entry into the Philippines of harmful pests,” Barron said.
“We fulfill this through the issuance of a plant quarantine certificate to accredited importers who apply for (the permit which is a requirement for importation),” he added.
Barron, who rose through the ranks in the DA and has been with the agency for 32 years, said the rise or fall of garlic prices was beyond the BPI’s control.
He said regulating commodity prices was within the purview of other government agencies like the Department of Trade and Industry.
A National Bureau of Investigation report said BPI officials received at least P200 million in exchange for permits to import garlic over the past five years. The BPI is a DA-attached agency.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) earlier identified the officials as Barron, Merle Palacpac and Luben Marasigan, the latter two the current and former BPI plant quarantine chief, respectively.
The DOJ had also noted the existence of a cartel wielding influence over the issuance of import permits, as well as market prices.
“We three, in the entirety of our government service, have never worked with the reported cartel,” Barron said, also speaking for Palacpac and Marasigan. “We are not even aware of a garlic cartel because I as BPI director never received word about its existence.”
As for taking bribes, Barron said the issuance of a quarantine clearance, including naming the parties to be awarded the permit, depended on recommendations by the National Garlic Action Team (NGAT).
The NGAT is composed of representatives of farmers’ cooperatives, processors, traders, vendors, the academe, DA-supervised agencies like the BPI, High-Value Crops Development Program, Bureau of Agricultural Research, and Agribusiness and Marketing Assistance Service, as well as the Bureau of Customs and Department of the Interior and Local Government.
As for whistleblower Lilybeth Valenzuela, who was one of the NBI’s sources, Barron said she was hardly credible.
In a sworn statement to the NBI, Valenzuela said that Barron had told her that an importer had to have connections to Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala to secure a permit.
“For your information, Valenzuela herself was implicated in the smuggling of vegetables like carrots, onions and garlic, based on a Bureau of Customs roster of blacklisted companies in 2012-2013.”
Barron said that in 2005, Valenzuela filed a case in the Office of the Ombudsman against himself, Marasigan and the late BPI Director Hernani Golez over the same things she was accusing them of now.
“The Ombudsman acquitted us in 2006 because her allegations were lies and because of insufficient evidence,” he said.
