DA forms team to assist Congress in strengthening Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act

The Department of Agriculture (DA) said Friday it has formed a technical working group (TWG) that would assist lawmakers in amending the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act of 2016.

In a news release, the DA said Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. designated lawyer DA Assistant Secretary for Regulations Paz Benavidez II as head of the eight-member TWG that will prepare the Agriculture department's position and inputs for consideration of both chambers of Congress.

The House of Representatives and the Senate have different measures that seek to make acts of agricultural smuggling and economic sabotage punishable by life imprisonment.

In September last year, the House approved on third and final reading House Bill  9284 or the proposed Agri-Fishery Commodities and Tobacco Economic Sabotage Act of 2023.

The lower chamber's proposed measure classifies large-scale agri-fishery commodities and tobacco smuggling, hoarding, profiteering, cartelizing, and other acts of market abuse as economic sabotage punishable by life imprisonment.

Meanwhile, Senate Bill 2432 also pushed for life imprisonment penalty and a fine equal to three times the value of the agricultural and fishery products, subject to the crime as economic sabotage on anyone who commits, aids, or abets the commission of prohibited acts.

Under the Senate's measure, economic sabotage in agriculture was defined as any act or activity that disrupts the economy by creating artificial shortages, promoting excessive importation, manipulating prices and supply, evading payment or underpayment of tariffs and customs duties, threatening local production and food security, gaining excessive or exorbitant profits by exploiting situations, creating scarcity, and entering into agreements that defeat fair competition to the prejudice of the public.

President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. certified as urgent the Senate bill.

For his part, Tiu Laurel said that while the House and Senate have different versions of the measure, lawmakers are expecting that stiffer punishment versus offenders will discourage smuggling of agricultural products that could lead to more affordable food prices and increased earnings for local farmers.

The current law only identifies large-scale smugglers as economic saboteurs and punishes them with life imprisonment and a fine twice the fair value of smuggled farm goods and total amount of taxes, duties and other charges.

Smuggling of agricultural products like sugar, corn, pork, onion, and garlic is considered large scale if the value is at least  P1 million and, in the case of rice, if the minimum value is P10 million, according to the DA. — VDV, GMA Integrated News