‘BUDGET, MANPOWER LACK SHORING GOVERNMENT ANTI-SMUGGLING BID’

March 27, 2022 Headlines

BAGUIO CITY (March 26, 2022) – The Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) have admitted in a recent meeting with the vegetable industry stakeholders that budget limitations and manpower are hampering government anti-smuggling operations.
Augusta Balanoy, spokesperson of the League of Associations at the La Trinidad Vegetable Trading Post (LALTVTP) said Federico E. Laciste, Jr. Assistant Secretary,
Chief Implementer, Agriculture Dialogue and Information Network Groups (ADING), admitted to them during a recent dialogue that the DA lack manpower and budget to cope with operations required to stop illegal smuggling of agricultural products.
Laciste accordingly informed that aside from being undermanned, “they do not even have a vehicle to use in their operations that even responding to reports, they use their vehicle and their fuel”, and requesting for additional personnel for operations is not even feasible.
Despite these limitations, Laciste accordingly claimed that their authority and power are very limited that they are only hopeful of larger participation from the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Customs.
Laciste admitted to Balanoy and her group that just like the BOC and other agencies, “there is corruption within the agency, admitting that he too has received phone calls from “congressmen” and other politicians regarding the issue”.
The DA official however did not elaborate further, Balanoy claimed. While George Y. Culaste, Bureau Director of the Bureau of Plant Industry, in that same meeting admitted to Benguet vegetable farmers that smuggling is also hard to crackdown because their permit application contains items that are allowed for importation, but later on, were discovered to be of fresh vegetables, or cases of misdeclaration, has a permit for frozen vegetables.
Culaste earlier approved the release of two container vans of what was later found out to be fresh vegetables. The container vans which were had a permit for frozen vegetables. LALTVTP questioned the release of these container vans.
Culaste told farmer representatives that the cargo in question has a permit for frozen vegetables but by the time he approved of the release, the goods were destroyed as the container van was unplugged. He said the company that owns the container vans incurred a loss due to this. He said, “naaawa nga ako sa kanila kasi nalugi sila eh first time nilang mag import”.
Meanwhile, in an earlier complaint of the LALTVTP on Korean strawberries which they monitored have found its way in the Philippine markets, Culaste said, the permit they approved were of high-end markets like hotels, and the declared selling price per kg is P3k plus and only 16 tons in volume were approved.
This, however, remained a question by LALTVTP, stating that their monitored prices of Korean strawberries sold in Cebu ranged from 600 to 800 pesos. Though it was immediately denied by Culaste stating those Korean strawberries in Cebu that are in question did not pass thru them and are smuggled from China.
Both Laciste and Culaste promised they will continue to work hard in performing their jobs for the protection of the local vegetable industry. Laciste offered his direct line for easier coordination and lodging of complaints.
Laciste added, that this March, their request for an additional budget was approved and they hope for better-operating results. He also said the bureaucracy in the govt is one reason they cannot respond swiftly.
Farmers had earlier decried that for nine months now they have been losing an estimate of P2.5 million daily because of illegally imported vegetables flooding the market.
Despite an ongoing Senate hearing on the illegal importation of agricultural products and despite lodging our formal complaints with the proper concerned government agencies, smuggling has not stopped, and smugglers so brazen to continue the illegal trade to this day, they said.
The LALTVTP is the biggest agriculture-related organization in Benguet with around 10,000 members covering the different stakeholders of the vegetable trading industry based in La Trinidad, Benguet. Lawyer Richard Kilaan, convenor of the Lawyers for Farmers (LFF) said, “The government should act now or our vegetable industry will die”. Contrary to denials of Benguet officials that the problem of vegetable smuggling continues to exist, there is now an admission that there is indeed smuggling, he added.
Artemio A. Dumlao/ABN