February 15th, 12:25am February 14th, 9:25pm TDTWithout Fear Without Favor

Otso Diretso ringleader Mar Roxas, who is now carrying “the economist” brand, criticized the rice tariffication program, as he said, “Before we give up on Filipino farmers, let’s give it our all.”

His concern would have meant a lot had he been talking from experience, but looking back during his and former President Noynoy Aquino’s regretful term, it wasn’t so.

Smuggling of rice became rampant during the previous regime when illegal shipments more than doubled from P31 billion under the entire term of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to P83 billion in the first five years of Noynoy.

The flow of smuggled agricultural goods was among the reasons for the weak performance of the farming sector as the local produce couldn’t compete against cheap dumped commodities.

Under the Roxas-Aquino partnership, smuggling of pork, chicken, sugar, onion, garlic and carrots went unhampered, based on industry figures.

From P94 billion of smuggled agricultural products under Arroyo, the illegal contraband dumped into the country amounted to P198 billion under Noynoy.

The 2.77 million metric tons of rice smuggled in from 2010 to 2014 are double the 1.06 million metric tons illegally imported from 2005 to 2009, the last five years of the Arroyo government.

Rice was the most smuggled commodity, at P94 billion, followed by pork, P40 billion and sugar, P25 billion.

From 2005 to 2009 under Arroyo, the volume of smuggled pork was recorded at 106,092 metric tons amounting to P18.56 billion, but from 2010 to 2014, pork smuggling increased to 202,936 metric tons for a total of P35.51 billion.

Sugar smuggling was recorded at 597,412 metric tons at P29.87 billion under Arroyo, but the record slid slightly to 487,467 metric tons, amounting to P24.37 billion, under Noynoy.

Smuggling of chicken also increased from 58,616 metric tons for a total of P7.32 billion under Arroyo to 91,151 metric tons or P11.39 billion under Aquino.

Onion smuggling decreased substantially from 143,382 metric tons or P7.17 billion under Arroyo to 38,660 metric tons or P1.93 billion under Aquino.

Smuggling of carrots increased dramatically from 1,076 metric tons worth P54 million under Arroyo to 6,114 metric tons amounting to P305 million under Aquino.

There was no record of smuggling of garlic under the Arroyo administration, but some 255,393 metric tons worth P25.54 billion were recorded under the Aquino administration.

The yellow Daang Matuwid’s legacy then was denying the government of huge revenues, since for every P200 billion worth of smuggled agricultural products, the government forewent between P60 billion and P80 billion in tariff.

Traders said then the administration of Noynoy had no intention of stopping smuggling.

Many in the trading sector knew of Davidson Bangayan or David Tan who controlled rice smuggling from Mindanao and is now indicted by the Department of Justice.

During the rule of Mar and Noynoy, Bangayan was an untouchable and even flaunted his influence during Senate investigations on rice smuggling held in 2014.

Most Mindanao officials knew him as the rice smuggling king of the South, yet the government then was the one that made up alibis for Bangayan.

He was placed under the custody of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) when detained Sen. Leila de Lima was Justice secretary after evidence was presented before the Senate in the form of a previous libel case, obtained by then Senate Minority Leader Juan Ponce Enrile, by Bangayan against trader Jess Arranza in which he admitted that he was also David Tan.

Bangayan was also found to have met with De Lima to deny that he is Tan. His arrest papers even had the wordings, “Davidson Bangayan who is not David Tan.”

Many Mindanao businessmen who wanted an end to rice smuggling then were willing to testify on the identity of Bangayan, which were offers that the NBI, strangely, ignored or did not seriously consider.

Arranza also volunteered to provide the NBI with all the proofs that it needed just to pin Bangayan.

President Rody Duterte, who was then Davao City mayor, was among those who pinpointed to Bangayan as also Tan.

Instead of filing charges, the NBI released Bangayan for the flimsy reason of not being able to establish his true identity. It was then reported that the order for his release came from the highest authority.

Duterte then demanded the resignation of De Lima for letting Bangayan walk.

Mar the economist in making a pitch for farmers merely opened himself for demands to account for his and Noynoy’s failures during their era of incompetence.