EDITORIAL - File the charges Bureau of Customs

Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero has denied wrongdoing, and Malacañang has urged senators to initiate the filing of appropriate charges against 22 persons led by the BOC chief who have been implicated in widespread smuggling of agricultural products.

The 22 were identified by Senate President Vicente Sotto III, who bared this week the committee report on the chamber’s inquiry into large-scale agricultural smuggling. Sotto said he had presented the 63-page report to president-elect Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who has opted to serve concurrently as secretary of agriculture to personally deal with the “severe” problems plaguing the sector.

Apart from Guerrero, the list includes four other BOC officials allegedly protecting smugglers, the directors of the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources as well as the Bureau of Plant Industry, the head of the BPI’s quarantine division, a mayor and several civilians. Navotas Mayor Toby Tiangco, who felt alluded to as the “Toby Tiangco” in the list, also denied involvement in smuggling.

Those named have questioned the source of the list, which Sotto said was provided by government intelligence agents. Agriculture smuggling may constitute the serious offense of economic sabotage. The best way to clear their names is for the proper charges to be filed.

Senators have said it is not their business to initiate the prosecution of persons deemed during congressional inquiries to be involved in wrongdoing. Private entities can initiate the process, and the agencies tasked to fight graft and other violations of the code of conduct for government workers can launch criminal proceedings on their own.

Local producers of agricultural and fisheries commodities have decried the continuing flood of imported items, some of which are smuggled while others are covered by import permits. The local producers, along with several senators, have lambasted what they consider to be the approval of an inordinate number of import permits by agriculture officials.

Unless these complaints are properly acted upon, with the truth unearthed and any guilty party penalized, the country will continue to face food insecurity, and the “severe” problems besetting the agriculture sector will not be resolved.