P1.5B worth of smuggled agri products seized from October 2022-January 2023 — DA exec

A total of P1.5 billion worth of smuggled agricultural products have been seized from October 2022 to January 2023, Agriculture Assistant Secretary James Layug said Friday.

“Ang ating naitala magmula October na operation natin hanggang January 27 po ay nasa P1.5 bilyon na po ng agricultural product ang ating nahuhuli na nasa eight million kilo ang volume nito,” he said at a televised public briefing.

(From October to January 27, we seized P1.5 billion worth of agricultural products with a volume of 8 million kilograms.)

According to Layug, 25 cases for the violation of Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act of 2016 and two cases for Food Safety Act 2013 have been filed against suspects.

He added that seven consignees and four brokers are facing cases.

Layug said the government is studying the possible implementation of pre-shipment inspection, where the products will be checked in the area of origin.

In January, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is eyeing a bureaucratic reform to curb smuggling as he lamented that the current system fails to address problem.—Joviland Rita/AOL, GMA Integrated News