President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act last Sept. 26, and the Palace is confident that the new law will make food more affordable and accessible to many Filipinos and provide better income for local farmers and fisherfolk.
Just because this measure is against smuggling, it has the potential of shoring up the revenues collected by the Bureau of Customs for the government. That is if the law is implemented honestly and efficiently.
Officials tout this law as the one measure that will give more teeth to government efforts to run after smugglers whose illegal activities are hurting farmers, fisherfolk, and consumers.
Under the new law, agricultural smuggling, hoarding, profiteering, cartel, and financing these crimes are classified as acts of economic sabotage and thus carry a penalty of life imprisonment and a fine of three times the value of agricultural and fishery products involved in the crime.
For acts that aid in the commission of agricultural economic sabotage, such as the transport and storage of smuggled goods, the penalty imposed will be 20 years to 30 years jail term and a fine of twice the value of the agricultural and fishery products involved in the crime.
By cracking down on smugglers, the public would be protected from the influx and proliferation of sub-standard goods and those unfit for human consumption.
These are all very good, except that 8 years ago, President Noynoy Aquino signed into law Republic Act 10845, an “Act declaring large-scale agricultural smuggling as economic sabotage, prescribing penalties therefor and for other purposes.” The upcoming legislation is just a reiteration of this Aquino anti-smuggling law, with perhaps more stringent penalties if the smuggler or hoarder is caught.
The truth is we have a surfeit of laws against smuggling, be they about food, agricultural products, or manufactured commodities. The government’s failure is in the implementation.
We remember that the Senate under then Senate President Tito Sotto, and this current House of Representatives, have identified the names of big-time smugglers of rice, sugar, onion, and other agricultural products in appropriate committee hearings. Sultan Kudarat Rep. Horacio Suansing Jr. named them at a House agriculture committee inquiry, and some of them are close to the Palace. Nothing has been heard about this after the House leadership silenced Suansing, and transferred the matter to Rep. Joey Salceda’s ways and means committee, which killed the issue.
Senate President Chiz Escudero hopes that this legislation would stop or greatly decrease the illegal activities of “smugglers, hoarders, and profiteers have long served as a monkey wrench to our efforts toward attaining food security.”
This is nothing but wishful thinking because in our country, whoever is in power controls smuggling. And also, illegal drugs, legal and illegal gambling, and all.
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