By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
Agricultural and fishery products smuggling may go largely unimpeded, at least for the next 3-4 months. This is a dire prediction of somebody who is directly knowledgeable of what is going on at our various ports. I hope it will not be the case.
I once asked a sitting senator why they are having a lot of public hearings about smuggling. It was the first and last time that I came at breath length with the senator. The senator and I just happened to sit next to each other in a gathering of professionals. The answer came swiftly, “It is necessary in aid of legislation. Knowing the truth is important”. Aside from the public hearings, the senator’s committee also did some related investigation.
“Madame, were you able to ascertain the truth then?”, was my follow-up question. “Yes, we were even able to identify smugglers”, was the quick reply. Just as quickly, I then asked the good senator, what they were doing with the result of their investigation and public hearings? Specifically, were they recommending the prosecution of the identified smugglers? The answer stunned me like a bolt of litghtning. The good (or bad?) senator told me: “We can not recommend for the prosecution of those smugglers because they are very rich and influential.”
I was so irreverent I rapidly mumbled, “Then your public hearings are just a waste of people’s money”. I didn’t know if the senator clearly heard me, as no reply came.
At the moment, agricultural product smuggling may actually go a bit unabated. Why? The Department of Agriculture is headed by no less than President BBM who can not actually directly supervise the department due to the gargantuan concerns of the presidency.
He appointed in his behalf an experienced technocrat but who is already an octogenarian, and gave him a designation as a senior undersecretary to make him above other undersecretaries in the department. Some people opined that while the senior USEC is good and has certainly proven himself in the past, he may not have the verve anymore to deal with the constant rigors of his position. Maybe a younger one, even in his/her early seventies, could provide more energy for the job, they added.
Another very plausible reason, for a possible smuggling continuity is the absence of pre-inspection of imports at the ports of origin.
Before, the government contracted a reputable international organization, the SGS of Sweden, who did the pre-inspection at the point of origin of imports. Inspection was done before merchandises were loaded to ships or planes. That arrangement was so good, it deterred smuggling and the government earned more from the duties of the imported goods.
The government dealt only with SGS, and the company was answerable to any smuggled goods from that are part of the inspected imported products. Clearly, there was very little problem then with smuggling because of the implementation of such system.
Pre-inspection was removed during the presidency of ERAP resulting to a free-for-all of importation. No more control at the point of origin of imports. Because of this, smuggling became rampant, government was short-changed thereby losing a lot of income. Before, many importers rely on licensed brokers where they were assessed the regular and proper tax. One container van of legal imports was assessed PhP160,000.00. Now, many unscrupulous importers no longer use the licensed brokers. They just pay PhP60,000.00/container van, and the balance of 100K go to similarly
Importers paid at least 160,000 per container van.
Now, that 160,000 had been reduced to 60,000.00. What happened
No inspection; difficult to determine supply available or what is in the storage-result to more smuggling and higher prices artificially
Free-for-all without SGS
Recycled permit
