MANILA, Philippines – An official of the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) on Thursday disputed the allegations of an import broker that he was involved in a cartel to manipulate the price of garlic.
In a statement, BPI Director Clarito Barron said the claims of Lilybeth Valenzuela were baseless. Barron said the allegations came when his agency told her that she must follow the stringent procedure and inspection of incoming fruits and vegetables.
He said Valenzuela wanted the BPI to approve her application for importation of 500 kilos of fresh imported strawberries from the United States.
Barron said last May 28, BPI plant quarantine service agriculturist Lolita Marajas refused to sign a document allegedly being lobbied by Valenzuela for the permit of imported strawberries.
He said Valenzuela did not allow authorities to inspect the fruits imported by New South Pacific Ocean Trading Company and demanded them to produce inspection order.
Valenzuela was subsequently replaced by Lenernma Coronel as representative of the importer.
“There are reports that this Ms. Valenzuela who is the president of the Philippine Vegetable and Importer Exporter Association (Pviea) is a registered and legitimate accredited importer of the BPI and the Bureau of Customs (BoC).This is untrue because Pviea is not among the BPI listed and accredited importers of garlic,” he said.
“In truth, Ms. Valenzuela has never been an accredited importer because she is a mere broker of the importers which she serves. For added information, Ms. Valenzuela was blacklisted for smuggling vegetables such as carrots, onions and garlic according to the blacklisted companies of the BoC in 2012 and 2013,” the BPI exec added.
Barron was among those slapped with a complaint for graft before the Office of the Ombudsman for allegedly conspiring with a group to manipulate the price of garlic.
He said BPI has no regulatory power when it comes to the pricing of garlic and that the said function belongs to other agencies such as DTI.
Under PD 1433 or the law of the Philippine Plant Quarantine of 1978, Barron said, the BPI is tasked to safeguard against the entry and spread of pests on plants in the country.
“What the price of garlic would be or whether it would increase is not in our control because after the issuance of our agency of the plant quarantine clearance to the accredited importers, the Bureau of Customs are the ones to determine whether the documents are complete,” he said.