Senate President Vicente C. Sotto today (May 31) expressed hopes that President-elect Ferdinand ‘’Bongbong’’ R. Marcos Jr. is focused on the unabated multi-billion-peso smuggling activities in the country.
In today’s Senate plenary session, Sotto said that he would file tomorrow a report of the Senate Committee of the Whole on the large-scale smuggling of agricultural products where intelligence sources indicate that there are 22 personalities involved.
He said there are five personalities from the Department of Agriculture (DA) and six personalities from the Bureau of Customs (BOC) involved.
Sotto told his colleagues that he would identify these personalities in his committee report.
He said Congress has given a budget for first border checks to check smuggling but this is not being implemented.
Sotto stressed these when he interpellated Senator Aquilino Pimentel III, chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, who is seeking a Senate ratification of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement where there are six Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) member states and five Asean trading partners namely Australia, China, Japan, Korea and New Zealand.
Senator Panfilo M. Lacson said he described the Philippines is an ‘’ant’' compared to the developed countries who are RCEP members that are ‘’elephants.’’
Pimentel said he is trying his best to answer the questions of his colleagues on the pluses and minuses pf RCEP.
Senator Francis Panglinan has misgivings about the RCEP which is good for businesses and services but doubts its benefits on the agriculture sector.
The agriculture sector would suffer unless government interventions are undertaken and put in place prior to the Philippine entry into the agreement, he added.
Pimentel said Philippine farmers are not sacrificed but are protected under the RCEP. ‘’They should be helped,’’ he added.
He stressed that RCEP is forcing the BOC to modernize because the agreement states that all parties should adopt information technology to facilitate trade.
The agreement, according to Pimentel, cracks the BOC to shape up.
Pimentel said the RCEP states that perishable goods must be released within 48 hours and six hours for perishable goods.
He cited one study that, with the Philippine membership in the RCEP, the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) by 2031 would grow by 1.93 percent while another study showed grow by 2.02 percent.
Pimentel cited the RCEP Agreement has four C’s which are: Cheaper cost, convenience, competitiveness and complementation.
He emphasized that Philippine negotiators took eight to 11 years to negotiate RCEP.
‘’We made sure the (Philippine) agriculture sector exploited,’’ he added.