Marcos orders smuggled onions checked before selling

Officers from the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service-Manila International Container Port (CIIS-MICP) inspect boxes containing red and white onions, misdeclared to be frozen dim sum balls. The Bureau of Customs said that the agricultural goods seized from December 27 to 28 were worth P139.7 million. | Bureau of Customs

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has ordered the phytosanitary inspection of smuggled onions to ensure their safety before they are released to the market.

The order was made during a Cabinet meeting in Malacañang on Tuesday morning, the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said.

“The problem with the onions, kasi ang dami nating nahahanap na smuggled onions, pinipilit kong ilabas diyan sa market [and] unfortunately, we do not know the source of these onions. So they all have to be inspected,” Marcos said, as quoted by PCO.

“Hindi puwedeng random,” he added.

(Since we have been seeing and seizing smuggled onions, I am trying to get them out to the markets, but unfortunately, we do not know the source of these onions, so they all have to be inspected.)

(That cannot be random.)

During the meeting, PCO said the President raised the need to tap third-party inspectors to conduct phytosanitary inspections to check for transboundary diseases.

Marcos said some of the confiscated onions were not fit for human consumption based on the previous inspections, pointing out that the cost of the inspection is P5,000 per kilo, which is much higher than the value of the onion.

“So ‘yun lang ang quandary natin. We are trying to negotiate with third parties to do the inspection. But right now, we are still reviewing all of that,” Marcos said.

(That’s our only quandary. We are trying to negotiate with third parties to do the inspection. But right now, we are still reviewing all of that.)

“They really have to be very safe kasi just one batch na makalusot, maraming magkakasakit talaga. So that’s the situation there,” he added.

(They really have to be safe because even with just one bad batch, many will get sick.)

The agricultural commodity price skyrocketed to over P700 per kilo, with authorities blaming unscrupulous traders and hoarders for the unreasonable price of onion in the country.

The Bureau of Customs (BOC) earlier said it is eyeing to donate the remaining shipments of seized agricultural products, including onions, to Kadiwa stores.

BoC Commissioner Yogi Filemon Ruiz has said that more than 500 container vans of smuggled agricultural items are still at the ports where they were confiscated.

The Marcos administration has launched the Kadiwa program to allow the public to buy agricultural products at lower prices amid the rising costs of basic goods.

Under the “Kadiwa ng Pasko” program, farmers, fishermen and microentrepreneurs were allowed to sell their products directly to the public.

JMS/abc