House Ways and Means Committee Chairman, Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey Salceda thinks that the Department of Justice (DOJ) should push the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to be more aggressive in prosecuting cases of large-scale agricultural smuggling.
“Large-scale agricultural smuggling is the single gravest sin to Philippine society today. I am disappointed in the DOJ that it does not use the efforts of the NBI enough,” Salceda said during a Ways and Means regular committee hearing on Tuesday, April 19.
The NBI is an attached agency of the DOJ.
Under Republic Act (RA) No. 10845 also known as the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act of 2016, the crime of agricultural smuggling is considered as a form of economic sabotage.
“Leaving the prosecutors to figure out these cases based on the facts from the Bureau of Customs (BOC) is a rather simplistic approach to this. I am making this statement that the NBI should be more involved in pursuing cases against these smugglers,” he said.
Salceda thinks that cases of agricultural smuggling are prone to jurisdictional issues between the BOC and the DOJ, adding that the Philippine National Police’s (PNP)-Criminal Investigation and Detention Group (CIDG) is also responsible for the monitoring of crimes involving economic sabotage.
“The implementing agency of the law is unfortunately the BOC, so there appears to be an issue of clarity about who should take the lead in pursuing these cases...I think we need to clear that up. It appears that RA 10845 will fall under the jurisdiction of this committee as well," the Bicol solon added.