Garlic cartel also cooked up onion racket—DOJ report

By: Tetch Torres-Tupas - 10 years ago

MANILA, Philippines—Onion imports were controlled by the same group behind the garlic price manipulation, the Department of Justice said on Friday.

A report by the DOJ Office of the Competition (OFC) tagged the Vegetables Importers, Exporters and Vendors Association of the Philippines Inc. (Vieva Phil) in the onion racket. The same group was accused of manipulating garlic prices in an earlier report.

“The modus operandi discussed extensively in the OFC report on the price increase of garlic is also in place in onion importation,” the DOJ said, adding that import clearances were issued to a favored group.

“This entity headed by Lilia Matabang, aka Leah Cruz, acts as a coordinating center to the farmers and their cooperatives, importers, exporters, vendors and trading enterprises,” the OFC report said.

“Investigation disclosed that Cruz and Vieva Phil actually control both the NGAT (National Garlic Action Team) and NOAT (National Onion Action Team),” it said.

“During NOAT meetings, Cruz is the one presiding and presenting issues… The NOAT is actually an exclusive group composed primarily of cooperatives and importers closely related or affiliated to Cruz,” the report added.

The DOJ said the Department of Agriculture (DA) failed in its task to detect hoarding and to properly monitor importation of onions.

“The (DA) failed to accurately monitor stock inventory and determine when imports should be allowed,” the OFC report said.

“The failure to monitor stocks results (in) failure to detect hoarding and improper recommendations on the timing of the import,” it said.

The OFC recommended the abolition of NOAT, which was created by the DA to protect the onion industry. The OFC cited conflict of interest because most of its members are also part of Cruz’s group.

Cruz was identified in a report released last September by the OFC as the primary figure in the so-called garlic cartel.

“Majority of the officers of the NGAT and NOAT are either the owners or head of an entity engaged in the importation of garlic and onion who are members of Vieva Phil,” the report stated.

But the OFC said “instead of protecting the local onion industry, it only served the interests of a few.”

From 2010 up to 2013, importer members of Vieva Phil were shown to “have been favored and issued import permits for onion, based on Plant Quarantine (Import Permits),” according to the DOJ report.