House of Representatives logo and plenary. INQUIRER FILES
MANILA, Philippines — A member of the House of Representatives gave the names of various individuals and consignees allegedly involved in smuggling and requested that a committee subpoena them for an investigation.
During the hearing of the House Committee and ways and means on Monday which was live streamed at the House of Representative’s official Facebook page, Sultan Kudarat 2nd District Rep. Horacio Suansing Jr. said that the alarming reports of underdeclared or misdeclared agricultural products entering the country should prompt the committee to contact the individuals he mentioned.
“Given these alarming reports, and in the interest of forging and building credibility and confidence in our government processes and institutions, I believe that it is incumbent upon this Chamber to exercise its oversight functions to scrutinize data reported by our own government agencies, to reconcile these data with those reported by international and multilateral organizations, and to recommend legislation and remedial measures, whenever necessary,” Suansing said.
“Furthermore, in light of these reports, and in light of the innumerable reports on widespread, large-scale smuggling of agricultural commodities in the country, in due time, I, as principal author of House Resolution No. 311, would like to request the Committee on Ways and Means to issue subpoenas for the following brokers/importers/facilitators allegedly involved in large-scale agricultural smuggling in local ports in the Philippines,” he added.
Suansing mentioned the following names:
Individuals:
- Michael Ma
- Lujene Ang
- Andrew Chang
- Beverly Peres
- Aaron
- Manuel Tan
- Leah Cruz
- Jun Diamante
- Lucio Lim
- Gerry Teves
Consignees:
- Victory JM Enterprises
- Taculog International Consumer Goods Trading
- Asterzenmed Aggregates
- Veneta Consumer Goods Trading
- Lalavy Aggregates Trading
- Frankie Trading Enterprises
- Primex Export – Import Producer
- SB Express Logistics Business Solution
- Silver Pop Dry Goods Trading
- Thousand Sunny Enterprises
- Viogelas Viol Aggregates Trading
- Junezone Dry Goods Trading
- Burias Jang Consumer Goods Trading
Suansing also requested the records and documentation of an importer who allegedly smuggles cigarettes into the country despite declaring that they are destined for Malaysia.
“Finally, I would also like to request records and documents from the Bureau of Customs on importer PilSHON Corporation, whose cigarette products are allegedly flooding Philippine local markets despite only being declared for transshipment to Malaysia,” he said.
“In view of these requests, I will divulge in due time pertinent information on these individuals and personalities, which would make relevant these requests to the Committee and to the concerned government agencies,” he added.
The country is currently facing a smuggling problem, with multiple shipments including agricultural products declared as different items being intercepted by the Bureau of Customs, the principal agency entrusted to detect these smuggled goods.
Vegetables, spices, and especially onions were common in smuggled food containers.
While smuggling would have brought down prices because of the abundance of supply, committee chair and Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda said during the hearing that distributors are stocking onions to create an artificial shortage, which drives prices high.
Before 2023, the prices of red onion skyrocketed to P600 to P700 per kilogram. The high prices prompted the Department of Agriculture to put a suggested retail price of P250 per kilogram for the past holidays.
President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. previously said that they were mulling the release of smuggled onions so that it would increase supply and hopefully bring prices down.