Agricultural stakeholders in the country are asking President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to immediately sign the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act that was recently ratified by both the House of Congress and the Senate last week.
The Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act, deemed to protect the country from tax evaders and non-payers of duties and also ensuring the well-being of Philippine agricultural producers, consumers, and the whole economy, was ratified last 22 May.
“We fervently hope and believe that this Act will be signed by the President before his State of the Nation Address this year. He will surely mention it during his address this July, realizing his promise in last year’s SoNA that the days of smugglers are numbered as he eradicates them during his term,” said AGAP Partylist Representative Nicanor Briones in a press conference on Tuesday.
Severe penalties to be imposed
Briones, the main proponent of the bill’s House version said its purpose is to repeal Republic Act 10845, or the “Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act,” and impose severe penalties for smuggling, hoarding, profiteering, and forming cartels of agricultural and fishery products.
“This is what we said that no matter what legislation, aid, or funding is given to farmers, nothing will happen if smugglers, hoarders, cartels, and profiteers continue to work together,” Briones said.
“In our bill, it is stated that there should be a National Council under the office of the President; that such council should include the seven farmer sectors; that there be an enforcement group, that is, the National Bureau of Investigation, the Philippine National Police, Philippine Coast Guard, Department of Trade and Industry, and the Department of Justice, among others. There are special prosecutors, and the penalty is life imprisonment, three times the fine, and nonbailable,” he said.
He said private citizens can also file a case against profiteers, smugglers, and hoarders, as there are rewards for the tipster or whistleblower from P1 million to P20 million or 20 percent, whichever is higher.
The lawmaker, also a hog raiser, emphasized that the Bureau of Customs cannot be included as they have been failing to enforce the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act, “because it has provisions in favor of smugglers, hoarders, profiteers, and cartels where customs takes precedence over said law.”
Losing billions in yearly revenues
Earlier, Federation of Philippine Industries president Jesus Arranza said that the Philippine government is losing at least P250 billion in revenues a year due to smuggling.
In a separate press conference in Makati City, the same fate is being experienced by tobacco traders when it comes to the negative effects of illicit trading of the said agricultural produce.
Atty. Venus Gatcales, chief of Excise Large Taxpayers Field Operations Division of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, said losses in tobacco excise tax collection due due to smuggling now reach P6.6 billion from January to April 2024 alone.
“Last year, the illicit trade greatly affected our collection of size tax on tobacco products. For last year, collection 2023 compared to the 2022 collection, there is a 15.91 percent decrease or about P25.5 billion," she said.
"That's how the excise tax on tobacco collection has been greatly affected by the illicit trade,” she added during a forum on the illicit trade of tobacco products at the Asian Institute of Management on Tuesday.
However, she said the revenue drop cannot be attributed to smuggling alone, as some smokers may have shifted to vape products, among other reasons.
“But there are also other factors like shifting of preferences. Nowadays, you can see that there is a shift of preference from using cigarettes to new tobacco products, such as vape, which is now a fad, especially for the younger ages,” she said.
