Senator Cynthia A. Villar is pushing for the creation of special courts to try exclusively smuggling cases worth billions of pesos that has prejudiced farmers and the economy. Villar said regional trial courts (RTCs) have not been effective. In today’s hybrid public hearing of the ...
The Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food and Agrarian Reform has sought the creation of an Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Task Force and an Anti-Smuggling Court to end the days of cartels that preyed on farmers and exacted high prices of agricultural produce in the markets. These were contained in a...
Senator Imee Marcos on Tuesday, January 31, said smugglers and other criminals guilty of large-scale agricultural sabotage, after years of evasion and bribery, should be clapped in jail for life. Marcos emphasized this after saying she is distraught about hearing smuggling allegations "knowing only...
Senator Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito has filed a bill seeking to amend the existing law on anti-agricultural smuggling saying it is necessary to provide stringent provisions against hoarders, profiteering traders who engage in hoarding, profiteering and cartel of prime agricultural products such...
The names of alleged big-time smugglers continue to reverberate in the halls of Philippine Congress, this time in the House of Representatives. Sultan Kudarat 2nd district Rep. Horacio Suansing Jr. (PPAB) Suldan Kudarat 2nd district Rep. Horacio Suansing Jr., during a House Committee on Ways and...
Agriculture stakeholders "should be given a seat at the table" in the government's fight against agricultural smuggling. AGRI Party-list Rep. Wilbert T. Lee (Facebook) Thus, said AGRI Party-list Rep. Wilbert T. Lee as he called for greater collaboration between the government and the agriculture...
Senator Christopher “Bong” Go on Tuesday, January 17 reiterated his push for the passage of a bill that seeks to promote digital transformation in government in order to help eliminate agricultural smuggling. Go is referring to Senate Bill No. 194 or the proposed E-Governance Act of 2022, which...
Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey Salceda says that the closure of Subic Port should be "seriously considered" if only to address the alleged rampant agricultural smuggling there. Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey Salceda "Unless Subic Port cleans up its act, we should seriously consider just closing the...
Senator Sherwin Gatchalian on Friday, January 6, urged the government to go after smugglers of agricultural commodities and protect local farmers from unwarranted competition. Gatchalian lamented that authorities have been confiscating smuggled products left and right but no “big fish” has been...
The House Committee on Ways and Means has vowed to pin down the alleged Chinese mafia behind the agricultural smuggling in the Philippines as soon as Congress resume sessions this year, 2023. Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Sarte Salceda, chairman of the said committee, said the panel has “Class...
Amid the continuous price increase of onion that already hit P720 per kilo this week, intelligence and investigation agents of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) seized another multi-million peso worth of agricultural products that include sacks of onions believed to have been smuggled into the country....
Agents of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service-Manila International Container Port (CIIS-MICP) of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) confiscated more than P171 million worth of onions and other agricultural products in more than two weeks of operations as part of the efforts to address...
