Senate ratifies report on proposed Anti-Agri Economic Sabotage Act

Senate committee on agriculture and food chair Cynthia Villar —Senate PRIB

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate ratified on Tuesday the bicameral conference committee report on the proposed Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act.

Sen. Cynthia Villar, head of the chamber’s panel on agriculture, bore the highlights of the conference committee report on the disagreeing provisions of Senate Bill No. 2432 and House Bill numbers 3917 and 9284 during the chamber’s plenary session.

READ: Stakeholders await implementation of anti agri economic sabotage law

“The bicameral conference agreed to adopt the reconsidered bill as the working draft of the discussion. The changes on the working draft which we stated in the joint explanatory statement are reflected on the content of the bicameral consolidated bill,” said Villar.

“Let me also put on record, as the chair of the Senate bicam panel, that in Section 18 of the consolidated bill we included the Department of Finance in the composition of the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage enforcement group,” she added.

READ: Marcos certifies bill with harsher penalties for agri smugglers as urgent

After the ratification of the report, Villar thanked all members of the Senate for helping her “be able to tackle this bill.” She said she’s hoping that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signs the bill as early as possible.

The measure specifically seeks to repeal the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act of 2016.  It also aims to end acts of smuggling, hoarding, profiteering, and cartel of agricultural and fishery products.

Penalties for these crimes include life imprisonment and a fine thrice the value of the agricultural and fishery products involved.

The proposed Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act is a priority measure as it was earlier certified by Marcos as urgent.