Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez on Thursday said the House of Representatives will speed up the passage of a key measure of President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. meant to tighten the noose around smugglers of onions and other agricultural products.
“As soon as the start of the 2nd Regular Session of the 19th Congress, we will immediately buckle down to work for the passage of the proposed amendments to the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act,” Romualdez said.
The measure is among the 20 bills slated for approval by Congress before the year’s end during the 2nd Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) full meeting presided over by the President in Malacanang on Wednesday.
“The inclusion of this measure among the LEDAC priority legislation manifests the commitment of Congress to support President Marcos’ drive against unfair business practices that [not only] hurt consumers and local farmers alike, but also derail the administration’s efforts to attain food security,” Romualdez said.
“The enactment of this measure will institutionalize and improve mechanisms, as well as provide more stringent penalties that would serve as a strong deterrent against smuggling of agricultural products, including onions,” he added.
The President earlier ordered the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to go after smugglers of onions and other agricultural products, based largely on the findings of the probe conducted by the House committee on agriculture and food.
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said it is building a case of economic sabotage against the members of the so-called “onion cartel” who were responsible for the astronomical spike of prices of onions in the country recently.
In a briefing, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said the agency is looking at the minutes of the congressional hearings and through their own notes to build a good case of economic sabotage against those behind the cartel.
“We need to build up a case,” Remulla said, adding that they are looking at six to seven people.
“We have a very good idea. We just have to catch them in the act,” he said. “This group has a huge network controlling the supply.”
In May, during a hearing of the House panel, Marikina 2nd District Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo tagged a cartel, operating through a web of companies, as the culprit that manipulated the supply and prices of onions.
Romualdez had called for the congressional inquiry on alleged hoarding, price fixing, and smuggling of onions when the prices of the agricultural commodity hit a record-high of about P700 per kilo in December last year.
Other measures LEDAC approved for passage by the year’s end include the Amendments of the BOT Law/PPP bill, National Disease Prevention Management Authority, Internet Transactions Act/E-Commerce Law, Health Emergency Auxiliary Reinforcement Team (Heart) Act, formerly Medical Reserve Corps, Virology Institute of the Philippines, Mandatory ROTC and NSTP, Revitalizing the Salt Industry, Valuation Reform, E-Government/E-Governance, and Ease of Paying Taxes.
Also targeted for passage this year are the National Government Rightsizing Program, Unified System of Separation/Retirement and Pension of MUPs, LGU Income Classification, Waste-to-Energy bill, New Philippine Passport Act, Magna Carta of Filipino Seafarers, National Employment Action Plan, and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas-endorsed Bank Deposit Secrecy, and, Anti-Financial Account Scamming Act (AFASA) bills.
Eighteen of the 20 bills were part of the 42 priority legislative measures during the first LEDAC meeting in October 2022. The two BSP-endorsed measures were added to the LEDAC priority list during the meeting Wednesday.
The House has already approved on the third and final reading 33 out of the original 42 LEDAC priority measures by the end of the First Regular Session of the 19th Congress.
One of the names that surfaced during congressional hearings was Lilia “Lea” Cruz, tagged as the operator behind the biggest onion cartel in the country.
Quimbo, vice chairperson of the House appropriations committee, said in May that Cruz engineered the artificial spike in onion prices late in 2022 until early this year.
Cruz has denied having a hand in the spike in prices of onions, which went up to P700 per kilogram in 2022.
In another development, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) seized smuggled white onions hidden in a shipment of “kimchi” from China with an estimated value of P998,700.
The shipment arrived at the Port of Cebu and was declared to contain 147 boxes of kimchi said to be worth P183,750.00. However, the consignee abandoned the shipment.
The BOC issued a warrant of seizure on the shipment.
An examination of the container yielded 3,329 bags of undeclared white onions stacked behind the boxes of kimchi.
The smuggled white onions and kimchi will immediately be disposed of in accordance with existing Customs rules and regulations, and in close coordination with the Bureau of Plant Industry.
Earlier this week, the President said there is no deadline on his order to investigate the onion cartel.
In an interview, the President told reporters that he’s not a fan of giving deadlines, adding that he would not accept a half-baked result.
Marcos said the probe will focus on those who took part in the hoarding and controlling of various agricultural products, saying that many cartels are still operating.
He also doubled down on his previous statement that this was tantamount to economic sabotage.
