Agriculture Secretary Manny Piñol and other officials of government agencies involved in the garlic industry development were lambasted by Senator Cynthia A. Villar following the increase of the prices of garlic.
Villar, chairman of the Senate agriculture committee, berated the Bureau of Plant Industry, which she accused of killing the local production of garlic so that they and the importers can enrich themselves.
Villar said that based on her own investigation, import permits issued by the BPI to farmers and farmer cooperatives were being sold to the cartel for P350,000 of 50 metric tons.
Piñol, however, insisted that the garlic cartel, which has proven to be inimical to the interest of small farmers and cooperatives, did not happen under his watch.
“But why did the price of garlic surge to P200 per kilo?” Villar asked.
Piñol said he had canceled the IPs after the cost of garlic soared to at least P200 per kilo.
“But why did you cancel the IPs only after the spike and not before the spike,” asked Villar, as she said that the DA should have canceled the IPs of those involved in the cartel.
But Piñol said he has no list of the supposed persons linked to the garlic cartel and requested for a copy.
Villar also slammed BPI officials for allowing those listed in the fact-finding report to be given import permits in the last three years.
Does it mean that this cartel happened without your knowledge? Either they are part of it or they are incompetent,” she said.
In a media briefing after the hearing, Villar told reporters that there are four dummy groups.
“It’s a group, that's cartel. They will appear to be different but definitely, they are a group,” she said.
She added that the same names appeared in the list of groups supposedly controlling the suppy of garlic in the local market.
The question here, why did the DoJ, they have the list, not file a case. And then the BPI, they saw it, but they did not blacklist in their list of importers," said Villar.
During the hearing, Villar also took to task Justice Assistant Secretary George Ortha II for his failure to prosecute garlic importers allegedly involved in a cartel.
She said the garlic cartel controls 75 percent, and that the names of those involved in the cartel is with the DoJ.
“Are you hiding the complete report so that the names of those in the list will not come out,” Villar quizzed Ortha.
“Why are you hiding the annex? You didn't want to file a case? Malakas sa inyo ’yung cartel? Remember, they are very rich … Bakit hindi lalagyan ang DoJ at BPI, ako may P1 billion at P2 billion a month, kahit sino sa inyo malalagyan ko na. Ganyan ang rice eh,” she said.
“Let us publish the list to put an end to this problem and the BPI should remove them,” said Villar, who chairs the agriculture committee.
Villar said she was given a copy of a 2014 fact-finding report produced by the Department of Justice Office for Competition. She said a journalist gave her a copy of the report, which did not contain the annex, where the names of those involved in the garlic cartel appeared.
Villar suggested that the DoJ and BPI officials may be benefiting from cartels, as those involved, she said, are earning P1 billion to P2 billion a month by overpricing garlic.
Explaining the DoJ’s failure to file a case, Ortha said the fact-finding report was forwarded to the National Bureau of Investigation, which conducted further investigation into the cartels.
He said the NBI then filed a complaint that has since been pending with the National Prosecution Service.
“After three years, it’s still pending? Don’t fool me. I’m so tired because you have been beating around the bush. I want to follow up that case,” Villar told Ortha.
