Food security is a very important factor in the life of a nation. People who manipulate the movement of food to drive up prices – and affect food security – have no place in society for they deprive their fellowmen of nourishment and affect the livelihood of farmers and fisherfolk who work hard to produce food.
The signing of Republic Act No. 12022, or the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act, on Sept. 26, aims to dismantle illegal activities that disrupt food supply and inflate prices. It repeals RA No. 10845 or the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act of 2016, replacing it with more comprehensive mechanisms to ensure stricter enforcement and better implementation.
What should be highlighted and repeated to emphasize the significance of the law is, first –smuggling, hoarding, profiteering, and cartel operations involved in agricultural and fishery products will now be classified as economic sabotage. That is a non-bailable offense punishable by life imprisonment and fines up to five times the value of the goods involved.
And the law will hold liable everyone involved in the smuggling, hoarding, profiteering, and other cartel activities involving agricultural products.
President Marcos, in a speech after signing the law, warned: "Let me be clear: this law does not just target the masterminds. It holds all accomplices accountable — financiers, brokers, employees, even transporters."
Under the law, acts supporting economic sabotage, including transport and storage are punishable with penalties of at least 20 to 30 years in jail and thrice the value of the involved agricultural commodity.
Two groups have been created to go after the cartels that threaten food security: the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Council which the President will head, and the Enforcement Group dedicated to dismantling smuggling operations and apprehending violators of the law. Meanwhile, a special team of prosecutors is being developed to expedite cases related to agricultural sabotage to make sure these get acted upon in record time.
RA 12022 is important not only to help make food more affordable to Filipinos while enhancing the livelihood of local farmers and fiskerfolk, but it will also stop government losses. The government has lost over ₱3 billion to agricultural smuggling. In only nine months of this year, ₱213 million worth of smuggled agricultural products were seized by the government.
Early this month, the Enforcement Office of the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) filed charges and recommended penalties of ₱2.42 billion against 12 onion traders and importers for allegedly operating as a cartel since 2019. The cartel members reportedly orchestrated large-scale smuggling and hoarding operations, which artificially inflated onion prices to record highs.
In January 2023, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) reported that ₱1.9 billion worth of smuggled agricultural products were confiscated in 2022, about 30 percent of them onions, whose prices had gone up to more than ₱600 per kilo at that time.
Clearly, the greed of a few that has driven up prices of agricultural products has no place in society. RA 12022 should put more teeth to government operations that go after the greedy who take away profits from our farmers, and proper nourishment from many of our countrymen.
This law should occupy a special place in the minds of the unscrupulous businessmen, including storage and transport operators, to drop this kind of money-making venture. Life imprisonment and huge fines wait for those who will violate the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act.