Group hits DA over vegetable smuggling

MANILA, Philippines — Peasant group Anakpawis has slammed the Department of Agriculture (DA) over the supposed continuous smuggling of vegetables and other agricultural products.

“Whatever happened to the anti-smuggling measures of the government? It appears that almost a year after the creation of the anti-smuggling task force, the government’s efforts to prevent smuggled agricultural products from entering the country are still weak and insubstantial,” Anakpawis party-list national chairperson Rafael Mariano said.

Mariano was referring to the Sub-Task Group on Economic Intelligence created in May last year purportedly to curb rampant entry of agricultural contraband in the country.

The task group is co-chaired by the DA and the Department of Trade and Industry.

Mariano, former secretary of the Department of Agrarian Reform, said farmers deserve an explanation from the government as “this rabid smuggling of vegetables is driving down the farm gate prices and forcing tens of thousands of farmers to bankruptcy.”

Last week, farmers from Benguet held a protest caravan to denounce the flooding of major local markets of supposedly smuggled vegetables from China.

Anakpawis said based on data of farmers’ group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, vegetable smuggling from China has been going on since 2007.

“The surge of smuggled agricultural products has been going on for many years now, so is the demand of our farmers to address this threat to their livelihood substantially and comprehensively,” Mariano said.

“One way is to do away with liberalization trade policies because smuggling is deemed as among the ill-effects of liberalized flow of imported agri-fishery products in the country,” he added.

Anakpawis dared the DA to “quickly identify and charge with economic sabotage notorious smugglers of vegetables and other agricultural products in the country.”