The Department of Agriculture (DA) has been urged to consider filing criminal raps against unscrupulous fish and agriculture importers found to be involved in smuggling and other economic sabotage acts.

Bicol Saro Partylist Rep. Brian Yamsuan made the call on Tuesday following the announcement of the DA that it would blacklist four importers—two from the fishing industry, one from rice, and one from sugar—for alleged smuggling activities.

While Yamsuan deemed this a welcome development, he stressed that the DA should have an iron hand on these crooks by filing criminal charges before a court to forfend blacklisted companies from resorting to using dummy firms to continue carrying out their illegal activities.

“Blacklisting erring agricultural importers should not be the DA’s only measure against them. If there is enough evidence, then criminal cases should be hurled against them in court,” said Yamsuan, a former assistant secretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

“We will await the action of the Department of Agriculture on this matter. We are counting on Agriculture Secretary (Francisco Tiu) Laurel (Jr.) to make his move soon against these suspected smugglers,” the lawmaker added.

The country is poised to enact a stiffer economic sabotage law that would impose severe sanctions on smugglers, hoarders, and cartels believed to be the culprits behind the soaring prices of agriculture, fishery, and meat products.

The bill, which has already passed the House and Senate and is now up for bicam, would amend the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act (RA 10845) by imposing heftier fines on violators and covering additional commodities such as tobacco.

Under the measure, smuggling of rice, fish, and other agricultural products is classified as economic sabotage, a crime punishable by life imprisonment.

Meanwhile, under the current law, large-scale fish smuggling is classified as economic sabotage if the value of the goods subject to the crime is at least P1 million, as valued by the Bureau of Customs.

The punishment for this crime under RA 10845 is life imprisonment, a fine of twice the fair value of the smuggled fish products, and the aggregate amount of the taxes, duties, and other charges involved.