Solon warns of rampant smuggling of agriculture products
By TJ Burgonio
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:42:00 05/14/2008
MANILA, Philippines -- More than P400 million worth of smuggled agricultural products have been seized in the past two months, a sign of rampant smuggling that could drive up prices of goods if it is not curbed, a lawmaker has warned.
Agap party-list Representative Nicanor Briones said that the rampant smuggling of agricultural products and its effect on livelihood have become a growing concern of farmers and fisherfolk.
“Smuggling, whether outright or technical, kills our farmers' livelihood, thereby driving our farmers and our nation to poverty,” he said in a privilege speech Tuesday night.
Agap stands for Agricultural Alliance of the Philippines.
Citing data from the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Task Force Group (PASG), Briones said that P473,178,500 worth of smuggled frozen Peking duck, chicken, ginger, luncheon meat, rice, among others, were seized from April to May.
The most recent was the seizure of P150 million worth of smuggled Peking ducks, giant squids, salmon, chicken, pork, onions, garlic and broccoli from a cold storage facility in Navotas on May 2.
In 2007, seized smuggled agricultural products totaled P743 million, Briones said, citing PASG figures.
“Smuggling kills our farmers' livelihood as it pushes the market price of agricultural products way below its production cost,” Briones said in his speech.
A “great number” of the farmers have lost their sole livelihood because of the losses incurred from lower market prices vis-à-vis production cost as an offshoot of smuggling, he said.
“Smuggling is a threat to our nation's food security. Once our farmers stop producing because of the ill effects of smuggling, food shortage is inevitable and increase in prices of food commodities is unavoidable,” the lawmaker warned.
Briones said that an estimated P100 billion is lost to smuggling a year, an amount that is 10 percent of the country's national budget and could have been used to reduce poverty.
“If we curtail smuggling, thereby collecting the tax revenues lost from it, we can give additional tax exemptions to our Filipino workers and we can make gasoline and electricity E-VAT free without even losing any revenues,” he said.
The lawmaker blamed the Bureau of Customs for failing to curb smuggling, and demanded its revamp.
“This is proof of the ineffectiveness in leadership in the Bureau of Customs. The corruption in the Bureau of Customs is the command responsibility of Commissioner Napoleon Morales,” he said.
He said it was clear that smuggling contributed to the agency's shortfall of P18.8 billion in tax collection last year, and P2.8 billion from January to March.
“I strongly propose a revamp in the said institution,” he said.
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