The names of alleged big-time smugglers continue to reverberate in the halls of Philippine Congress, this time in the House of Representatives.
Suldan Kudarat 2nd district Rep. Horacio Suansing Jr., during a House Committee on Ways and Means hearing Monday, Jan. 23, identified 10 people allegedly involved in large-scale agricultural smuggling in different points of entry in the country.
They are Michael Ma, Lujene Ang, Andrew Chang, Beverly Peres, a certain "Aaron", Manuel Tan, Leah Cruz, Jun Diamante, Lucio Lim, and Gerry Teves.
"I move that we issue an invitation to the personalities enumerated in my sponsorship speech and also request for the records of all importations of the consignees cited therein. I so move Mr. Chairman," Suansing asked Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey Salceda.
Salceda chairs the ways and means panel, which held the hearing specifically to tackle the problem of smuggling. He approved the motion.
"Would you require personal presence of these people?" Salceda asked the Mindanao lawmaker, who answered: "Yes course I'd like to confront them personally."
"Pampagana lang ito kasi (This is just for appetizers since) I will be tackling onions, sugar, rice, vegetables, and poultry products," Suansing said.
Agricultural smuggling is widely known to be one of the contributing factors to the soaring prices of food.
Last week, over in the Senate, Senator Raffy Tulfo also made public the names of nine alleged big-time oil smugglers.
The ways and means panel hearing took place on the first session day of the year for the House members.
The next hearing, wherein the 10 smugglers identified by Suansing were invited to, will take place on Jan. 30. He said he would leave it to Salceda whether or not the hearing would be held in an executive session.
"But I was informed that two of the personalities have already fled to China," Suansing told the panel chairman.
An executive session is closed to members of the media.
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The consignees that Suansing wants to look into in connection with alleged agricultural smuggling are the following:
Victory JM Enterprises, Taculog International Consumer Goods Trading, Asterzenmed Aggregates, Veneta Consumer Goods Trading, Lalavy Aggregates Trading, Frankie Trading Enterprises, Primex Export - Import Producer, SB Express Logistics Business Solution, Silver Pop Dry Goods Trading, Thousand Sunny Enterprises, Viogelas Viol Aggregates Trading, Junezone Dry Goods Trading, and Burias Jang Consumer Goods Trading.
"In view of these requests, I will divulge in due time pertinent information on these individuals and personalities, which would make relevant these requests to the Committee and to the concerned government agencies," Suansing said.