Angara warns against uncheck smuggling in the southern backborder

Opposition senatorial candidate Edgardo J. Angara yesterday sought for border patrols to check the smuggling of rice, corn, sugar and even lethal pesticides through the so-called "Southern Backdoor" to protect local producers.

Angara said that he has been receiving reports from farmers and producers groups on the unabated smuggling of agricultural products and the dangerous pesticides from neighboring Asian countries.

Angara said the yearly import requirements for agricultural for agricultural commodities are based on precise production-demand figures and the mandatory imports under the minimum access volume (MAV) which the Philippine government is committed to buy from abroad in line with its World Trade Organization (WTO) membership.

Unchecked smuggling via the Southern Backdoor would distort the entire supply-demand strategies of government and prejudice local producers, said Angara.

Angara said that well-organized smuggling groups have been behind the illegal entry of the major agricultural commodities.

Angara said that the smuggling of lethal pesticides is particularly alarming.

In several areas of Muslim Mindanao, crops are being damaged and lives are lost due to the lethal pesticides.

Angara said that illegal pesticide factories in neighboring or smugglers get hold of expired pesticides," he said.

Angara said the Fertilizer and Pesticides Authority (FPA) worked hard to stop the smuggling of the lethal pesticides during his term as agriculture secretary.