THE Department of Agriculture (DA) has formed a special committee to kick-start the investigation on the alleged “tongpats” (kickback) system in the country’s pork importation as claimed by a senator.
A day after pronouncing that the DA will investigate the claims of Sen. Panfilo Lacson, Agriculture Secretary William D. Dar formed a special committee led by the department’s legal service chief to look into alleged corruption in its meat importation system.
“While we stand firm that the issuance of MAV [minimum access volume] in-quota allocation is above-board and non-discretionary, we have created a special committee to look into allegations made by a lawmaker that there is a syndicate in the DA engaged in a payoff scheme,” Dar said in a statement on Wednesday.
The DA said the investigation of the committee will take off from the initial findings by the DA-MAV Secretariat. Dar directed the committee to submit their final findings and recommendations to him by the end of the month.
In the same statement, the DA-MAV Secretariat pointed out that “the allegation of corruption to get a MAV import certificate is remote” since the existing licensees “are the same ones every year, and who were previously accredited by the past DA administrations.”
In its initial report to Dar, the DA-MAV Secretariat noted that, “there are no disparities between the allocations of the current MAV licensees and those given prior to the current DA administration.”
The DA chief said, “We would like to emphasize that our objective in increasing the MAV and reducing tariff is to stabilize supply and price of pork.”
The DA said that its MAV Secretariat imposes penalties on licensees who were not able to use 70 percent of their allocation for the year. The unused volume is recalled and deducted from the licensee and will be raffled off to qualified applicants, it added.
The BusinessMirror reported on Wednesday that the DA will look into the allegations made by Lacson during Monday’s Senate plenary session regarding the alleged P5 to P7 per kilogram of imported pork kickback scheme.
(Related story: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2021/03/17/dar-kickback-claim-on-pork-to-be-probed/)
Lacson bared the allegation just before senators adopted a resolution, expressing the sense of the Senate, asking President Duterte to reject a twin proposal—both endorsed by the DA—to slash tariffs on imported pork while increasing the MAV for imports.
There had been concern that these moves, instead of curbing inflation from price spikes and supply shortfalls caused by African Swine Fever (ASF), would simply kill the local hog industry, deprive the government of revenue, and fatten vested interests.
Hog raisers asked Duterte on Tuesday to reject the cut-tariffs-hike-MAV proposals.
(Related story: https://businessmirror.com.ph/2021/03/17/local-hog-raisers-write-duterte/)
Meat Importers and Traders Association (Mita) President Jesus C. Cham earlier said the country’s MAV system is an “established, robust system” that is “very transparent and equitable.”
“The reason I say that [is] because this was established in 1996 and survived for 21 years without controversies,” Cham told the BusinessMirror.
Cham, who sits in the MAV Council and whose company has a MAV allocation, said he is not aware of any “tongpats” system in the current MAV setup.