Marcos posts ‘big fish’ catch - First under Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act
I hope this is the first of many operations such as this because this is very important. And we need to control, we need to supervise, our food supply.
Waste not, want not To ‘teach them to fish’ is noble, but when fish literally is there to give, why dispose of them when they can feed the hungry? Residents of Baseco in Manila make their way to the Benigno Aquino Elementary School on Saturday, 14 December, to receive frozen mackerel provided by government through the Department of Social Welfare Department Welfare and Development. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. inspected confiscated fish from China worth an estimated P178.5 million at the Manila International Container Terminal in Tondo, Manila. With the Chief Executive are Social and Development Welfare Secretary Rex Gatchalian; Finance Undersecretary Charlito Martin R. Mendoza, Revenue Operations Group; Interior and Local Government Secretary Jonvic Remulla; Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr.; and Bureau of Customs Commisioner Bienvenido Rubio.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY aram jan lascano and PCO FOR THE DAILY TRIBUNE
PHOTOGRAPHS BY aram jan lascano and PCO FOR THE DAILY TRIBUNE
PHOTOGRAPHS BY aram jan lascano and PCO FOR THE DAILY TRIBUNE
PHOTOGRAPHS BY aram jan lascano and PCO FOR THE DAILY TRIBUNE
PHOTOGRAPHS BY aram jan lascano and PCO FOR THE DAILY TRIBUNE
Nearly three months after signing Republic Act 12022, or the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. announced that the law made its first catch which were literally big fish or mackerel worth an estimated P178.5 million that smugglers attempted to slip into the country.
On Saturday, Marcos went to the Manila port in Tondo, Manila to inspect 21 container vans loaded with frozen mackerel.
“This is the whole so-called chain that we need to break. And this, as I said, is the first case under the new law of the Anti-Agricultural Sabotage Act. So, I’ve spoken to our Bureau of Customs and I’ve spoken to the Department of Agriculture and we have to keep going. We need to strengthen this further,” he stressed.
The Chief Executive directed the Bureau of Customs (BoC) and the Department of Agriculture (DA) to intensify the implementation of the new anti-smuggling measure.
Marcos wants firmer action against smugglers of farm goods who, he said, disrupt the supply chain. He acknowledged that smuggling affects the prices of agricultural products in the local market.
“I hope this is the first of many operations because this is very important. And we need to control, we need to supervise, our food supply,” he added.
The shipment of fish, in high demand particularly by first-class restaurants, was intercepted by the BoC in September. The cargo originated in China.
The BoC said the shipment entered the country without a sanitary and phytosanitary import clearance (SPIC) from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR). As a result, the container vans were deemed abandoned and forfeited in favor of the government.
Officials said the shipment, consigned to Pacific Sealand Foods Corp., violated DA Memorandum Order 14, s. 2024, which suspends the issuance of sanitary and phytosanitary import clearances for the importation of round scad, mackerel and bonito.
The BoC has seized P5.87 billion worth of smuggled agricultural products from July 2022 to November 2024. The agency filed 250 cases on unfair trade involving agricultural goods worth P8.59 billion from 2018 to 2024.
The BoC recorded four convictions involving the illicit importation of agricultural products.
Typhoon victims to benefit
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. has asked the BoC to turn over the frozen fish to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) for distribution to typhoon victims.
The DSWD will distribute the fish to over 150,000 families residing in marginalized areas in 17 localities in Metro Manila and one each in Regions 3 and 4-A.
