Rice smugglers earned a special mention on President Marcos' third State of the Nation Address (SONA), telling them that the government means business in cracking down their operations.
In his 82-minute speech at the Batasang Pambansa on Monday, July 22, Marcos reported to the nation that the government will soon implement a stricter procedure to prevent the smuggling of rice shipments into the country.
"Soon, we will be implementing the pre-border technical verification and cross-border electronic invoicing of import commodities," Marcos said.
"This will send a strong message that we mean serious business," he warned.
The President cited that through modernized customs procedures and heightened enforcement efforts, more than P2.7 billion worth of smuggled agri-fisheries products have been seized, preventing them from entering the market and negatively influencing prices.
"Bilang leksyon, ang mga nasabat na kargamento ng bigas ay agad nating ipinamahagi sa ating mga mahihirap na kababayan (As a lesson, the seized shipments of rice are immediately given to our poor countrymen)," Marcos said.
He further warned smugglers that their future illegal shipments will suffer the same fate.
"Ganoon din ang sasapitin ng lahat ng mga ipupuslit na mga bigas (All smuggled rice will suffer the same fate)," he added.