Government eyes auctions for all agriculture products

MANILA, Philippines — The government will soon adopt an auction system for all agricultural commodity imports to ensure more transparency and efficiency.

In a briefing on Friday, Agriculture Secretary William Dar said an open tender system is already in the pipeline for the issuance of import clearance of all commodities.

“I had tasked them [Department of Agriculture-attached agencies] two weeks ago to study the auction system of the DOF (Department of Finance) and Land Bank (of the Philippines) so that all certificates of import clearance would be auctioned instead,” Dar said.

“The auction system will be in place so that the government can collect something [as a whole] and not just by a few [people]. We will introduce this system because that’s what our President wants and what our country needs to ensure more money to support our farmers and fisherfolks,” he said.

Dar admitted that the proposal for an auction system was raised by Finance chief Carlos Dominguez when Dar assumed office in August last year.

“We are still designing the guidelines, but the general framework is that everybody will be able to participate, we will auction by lot and we will collect fees for the government,” Dar said.

An open tender system allows all qualified bidders to join. Bids are opened to the public and are chosen on the basis of price.

The DA targets to start the auction system within the year for rice, onion, garlic, meat products and fisheries, among others.

A follow-up meeting with the DOF has already been set next week to further iron out the details of the new system.

“This auction system is for transparency and objectivity. Plus the fees that will be collected by the national government, we will discuss with the Bureau of the Treasury to divide it between them and our DA agencies,” Dar said.

DA-attached agencies that will be primarily involved are the Bureau of Plant Industry, Bureau of Animal Industry, Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources and the Sugar Regulatory Administration.

For one, the SRA is expected to be the first to implement the auction system as studies have started two months ago.