Agriculture sector group backs ‘David Tan’ probe

A group of stakeholders in agriculture threw its full support to efforts by the government to unmask who the real David Tan is, the alleged kingpin of rice smuggling in the country.

In a statement, the group Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (Sinag) said it supports the Department of Justice, Department of Agriculture (DA) and Bureau of Customs in their effort to pin down Tan.

Rosendo So, Sinag president, said in the statement that he is baffled by the reaction of some militant groups, like Sanlakas, to the Tan issue, hitting the DA instead of supporting efforts to stop smuggling.

“Where was this lawyer when we in the agriculture sector were fighting smuggling?” So said, referring to lawyer Argee Guevarra, head of Sanlakas.

“What was he doing when farmers suffered from the influx of smuggled rice, onions and other agriculture products?” So said.

So said some groups now critical of the DA were quiet when Sinag revealed that up to P36 billion in potential revenue was lost to smuggling.

“And now that the DA has unmasked the identity of Tan, now that the National Food Authority (NFA) has stopped issuing importation permits to cooperatives that were proven to have colluded with smugglers, they are saying that there is no David Tan and that the NFA must allow unregulated rice importation,” said So.

The DA had sought an extension of quantitative restrictions (QR) on rice importation in a bid to retain the 40 percent duty on grains entering the country under the minimum access volume (MAV), which sets the ceiling for imported grains. The MAV for the Philippines is 350,000 metric tons.

Under the World Trade Organization agreement, importation outside of the 350,000 metric ton MAV should be levied up to 50 percent of tariff.

So said the QR protects local farmers against smuggling through the modus operandi of bringing in rice shipment and working on permits later.