DOJ panel to probe ex-BPI chief, others allegedly involved in garlic cartel

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has formed a panel of prosecutors to probe more than 100 public and private individuals who were supposedly behind the surge in garlic prices last year.

 

Prosecutor General Claro Arellano said the prosecutors assigned to the case were Assistant State Prosecutor Ramon Chito Mendoza and Prosecution Attorneys Agnes Bagaforo-Arellano and Christine Fatima Estepa.

 

The panel was formed in response to the charges filed by the National Bureau of Investigation against those involved for supposedly violating the Price Act, Monopolies and Combinations in restraint of trade under the Revised Penal Code, as well as for using fictitious name and concealing one's true name, and obstructing the apprehension and prosecution of criminal offenders under Presidential Decree No. 1892.

 

The NBI had filed a separate set of charges against the suspects before the Office of the Ombudsman last January 7 for direct bribery and violation of the Anti-Graft law.

 

Among those to be charged are former and incumbent officials of the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI), importer Lilia Cruz, alias Leah Cruz, and her supposed dummies that were responsible for supposedly cornering at least 75 percent of the total garlic importation into the country by virtue of BPI import permits.

 

Also to be charged is former BPI Director Clarito Barron.

 

In September last year, the DOJ confirmed that the spike in garlic prices was caused by collusion involving government officials and a garlic importer who allegedly cornered nearly all of the commodity's supply.

 

In a report, the DOJ Office for Competition noted there was no shortage of garlic and that the Agriculture Department's National Garlic Action Team should be abolished for being "unnecessary, unhelpful" and for supposedly contributing to the problem.

 

The department also claimed it discovered the majority of import permits for garlic were given to a preferred group of four individuals and their allied interests through a web or network of dummies accredited by the Plant Industry Bureau.

 

Seventy-three percent of the demand for garlic comes from imports and 27 percent from local producers. The process of importing the commodity requires an import permit from the bureau. – VS, GMA News