Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Wednesday pushed for an immediate inquiry by the Senate Committee of the Whole into the alleged “large-scale smuggling” of agricultural products across the country.
Speaking before Cagayan Valley reporters in an online news briefing, Sotto claimed of continued smuggling and corruption “which kill and destroy the local agriculture industry and robbing farmers a decent living”.
He said the laws enacted “to modernize the agricultural sector in the hopes of uplifting the lives of our farmers would be futile if smuggling and corruption continue to reign”.
Sotto said large-scale smuggling of agricultural products including rice is “economic sabotage” under Republic Act 10845, the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act of 2016.
He said the members of Congress, with its oversight function, would look into the issues of corruption and smuggling as these are the ones “putting us into suffering and extreme poverty”.
The senator recalled that billion-peso worth of smuggled goods was seized in 25 operations documented by the Bureau of Customs from May to November 18, this year.
“We will never achieve our agricultural independence because some scrupulous individuals are in cahoots with the smugglers,” Sotto said, as he lamented that port congestion, red tape, extortion, and under-the-table ways continue to “burden the businesses”.
Source: Philippines News Agency
