The fear factor

Last Thursday up to yesterday, ASAP coalition members stopped delivering meat and meat products as part of a protest movement called "Pig Sale Holiday" that they thought would bring their message to government policy makers and implemen-tors of laws, as soon as possi-ble: That smuggling and over-importation are hurting the domestic hog raising industry — and bad for the economy. Too, the leaders of the Agricultural Sector Alliance of the Philippines (ASAP) are appealing for understanding and sympathy from the consumers and the public.

Some months back, agri-product smuggling happened in trickles and far between that hardly anybody noticed. But since half a year ago when the menace reared its ugly head local hog raisers have come at odds with the Philippine Association of Meat Processors, Inc. (PAMPI).

Like a plague, the fear factor is rising to the level that smuggling is becoming a hot issue. Unfortunately, it’s the industry that suffers.

Feeling alluded to by the pronouncements of ASAP, PAMPI has this to say: "Our meat imports, especially those used in the production of corned beef, hotdogs, luncheon meats, hams, bacons, and the like, have been blamed in oversupply of carabeef.

"On smuggling, we wish to state that this is a law enforce-ment issue which can be easily addressed by the Department of Finance. None of our mem-bers is involved in any smuggling activity."

It adds: "An organization of hog raisers and a cooperative in Batangas (obviously refer-ring to the ASAP alliance) has been trying to destabilize the government by giving false information to the public and spreading wild rumors on the state of the agriculture sector."

In response, Nicanor Briones, ASAP president, says: "We do not understand where PAMPI’s vehement and defen-sive reaction to our fight against unchecked importa-tion and rampant smuggling is coming from. We never blamed them for the losses our backyard raisers — who pro-duce 80 percent of the coun-try’s total production with 592,000 farmers— have in-curred. Let us not deviate from the real issues — that of un-checked importation and ram-pant smuggling of meat parts and meat products.

"The data we have given the public on meat importa-tion came directly from the Bureau of Animal Industry. Based on their records, impor-tation of meat products has risen by 15.15 percent from 137.78 million kilos in 2001 to 158.67 million kilos in 2002. This caused the eight-month continuous drop in farm gate prices, the biggest ever in more than 20 years.

"We are not making impossible demands. Agricul-ture Secretary Luis P. Lorenzo Jr. has agreed to two of our requests. Creation of an in-dustry desk at the National Meat Inspection Commission that will certify the capacity and utilization of meat pro-cessing plants. The other is designation of swine indus-try representative to the National Anti-Smuggling Task Force."

In one raid, an ASAP re-presentative joined Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Cama-cho, Presidential Security Chief Hermogenes Esperon, task force chief and Customs Commissioner Antonio M. Bernardo in seizing nume-rous container vans of smug-gled meat and vegetables.

With ASAP’s effort, the farm gate price of hogs has risen from an eight-month slump of P52 per kilo to about P62 per kilo. This, however, is still P8 lower on a year-on-year basis.

Commenting on the protest action, Agriculture Undersecretary for Livestock and Fisheries Cesar Drilon, the official which ASAP wants out of the Department of Agriculture, said: "The number of hog raisers in the boycott were not sufficient to prejudice public welfare."

Briones said the delivery boycott was estimated to have cut supplies to public markets by half. "This is only an aperitif which we call pahimagas in Filipino until the problems of smuggling and over-importation are reduced to a manageable level."

Georgette Dionisio, muni-cipal agriculturist and provin-cial task force FMD; Romy Guison, chairman of the pro-vincial agriculture and fishery council in Bulacan and Rey-naldo Santos, farmer leader in Barangay Sulucan in Bocaue are obviously for the boycott.

Meat dealers and butchers in Balagtas town, a major meat distribution center in Bulacan say they are willing to make sacrifices to protect the interest of farmers and livestock raisers.

"Dito rin kami nabubuhay kaya nakikisa kami sa kanilang ipinaglalaban. Pag bumagsak ang kanilang industriya," explains butcher Apeng Madlangsakay.

"Okay lang naman na magsakripisyo kami kaysa tuluyan naman kaming mawalan ng pagkakakitaan," says meat dealer Lito Galvez.

Participants — aside from Metro Manila and Gen. San-tos City — are the provinces of Batangas, Laguna, Quezon, Rizal, Cavite, Bulacan, Pampanga, Tarlac, Nueva Ecija and Pangasinan.

So, the meat industry’s fortune will rise with the scourge of smuggling and over-importation eradicated or fall with it.