House Ways and Means Committee Chairman and Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey Salceda sought to disprove allegations that the lower chamber has yet to lift a finger on the problem of agricultural smuggling in the country.

“The House Ways and Means Committee, as the overseer of the country’s import procedures on behalf of the House of Representatives, has been working with the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the Department of Agriculture (DA) to keep tightening the noose on agricultural smugglers," he said in a statement on Tuesday, March 29.

"Allow me to provide a rundown of our work with the different agencies. I hope this clarifies a point raised in recent Senate hearings that the House has not yet taken action on agricultural smuggling," Salceda said.

According to the economist-solon, his panel "alerted the BOC and the other relevant agencies about the possible scale of agricultural smuggling in the country as early as February 2021".

"In compliance with a request from the House Committee on Ways and Means, the BOC created a joint task force with the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) and other agencies to tighten enforcement on smuggling," he said.

“By March, we conducted an executive session with the BOC and the DA, along with other relevant agencies, to strengthen anti-agricultural smuggling efforts in ecozones and ports, in response to biosecurity threats from the smuggling of plant and animal products. As a result of such discussions, the adopted stricter rules through the issuance of Memorandum Circular No. 12 which establishes comprehensive biosafety and biosecurity guidelines and a plan of action for improving biosafety systems," he said.

“In October 2021, we conducted another hearing focused on efforts to prevent the smuggling of agricultural products. The BOC reported that it has already filed several cases against agricultural smugglers in response to our request," Salceda noted.

Continuing his timeline-style report, Salceda said that his panel tasked the PCG to strengthen its border inspections and patrolling to deter further agricultural smuggling in November 2021. "We also requested the PCG to give particular attention to private ports during discussions on PCG modernization.”

“In December 2021," the Bicol solon said, "I alerted the again on the proliferation of possibly smuggled strawberries that threatened the local strawberry producers in North Luzon.”

The House leader then laid out the committee's plans moving forward.

"First, we will hold another updates hearing with the BOC, DA, and other agencies, to keep abreast of developments on our requests. Second, I will constitute a Technical Working Group on possible recommendations that we can turnover to the next administration, particularly on amendments to the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act. Third, we will finalize a joint memorandum circular between the agencies to strengthen anti agricultural smuggling measures.

“Investigation is one thing. We are legislators. So, the House has been focused on working with the agencies to revise administrative issuances and policies, as well as creating the necessary legislative pressure to strengthen ongoing efforts," Salceda said.