Vegetable trade group supports move to give police powers to DA to address agri smuggling
MANILA, Philippines — A vegetable traders' group in Benguet said Thursday that it supports proposals to give the Department of Agriculture the authority to go after agricultural smugglers.
This comes after Rep. Joey Salceda (Albay) hinted at giving such powers to the agency in a bid to solve the country's multi-billion peso smuggling of agricultural goods.
This will likely require the passage of new legislation which may not be tackled in the 18th Congress due to the lack of time, and as several lawmakers running for re-election are focusing on their campaigns.
"Pwede po sana. Parang maganda rin po iyon kasi parang iyon po ang isang rason kaya naaantala po yung paghuli nila sa mga na-iinspect dahil instead of huhulihin na lang sana, e wala pala silang police power," Agot Balanoy, the public relations officer of the League of Associations at the La Trinidad Vegetable Trading Areas, said in Filipino during an interview over GMA News' "Unang Balita" on Thursday.
(This would be good, because one reason the DA encountered delays in catching suspects during inspections is, instead of just arresting the suspects, it turns out the DA has no police power to do it.)
Agriculture Undersecretary Fermin Adriano previously said that the agency should have the power to apprehend and file cases against agricultural smugglers, according to a news report from the Philippine News Agency. He explained that the DA can only collaborate with the Bureau of Customs when pursuing such smuggling cases.
Rep. Salceda, who chairs the House committee on ways and means, earlier suggested that the DA secretary should be able to pursue cases against smugglers, and likened the proposed police powers of the DA to how the Bureau of Internal Revenue pursues tax evaders.
He said he is drafting a proposed measure, but also asked Agriculture Secretary William Dar to “formalize his request for police powers" by sending a draft of the bill.
Benguet farmers have been struggling with selling their carrots for the past two days, Balanoy said. She claimed that Chinese traders now use a "new system" where they go straight to restaurant owners to sell what she said were carrots smuggled from abroad.
She explained that fewer consumers are buying carrots from local farmers since they opt to buy the cheaper, smuggled ones from China.
"[The ones who sell smuggled products] make sure that the prices are P10 to P15 lower than the locally-produced ones. We call on consumers to support our local vegetables which will help sustain many of our farmers," Balanoy said in Filipino.
She said that local vegetables are safer for consumption since they typically go bad after three days, compared to the ones from China which are allegedly preserved with chemicals that may not be food-grade.
Balanoy earlier told senators that local farmers in La Trinidad are losing P2.5 million a day as more smuggled carrots entered the Philippine market this year. — Angelica Y. Yang
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