SENATORS on Tuesday pressed for the creation of courts especially handling agricultural smuggling, expressing alarm over the impunity with which such crime is being committed and seeking more teeth to a 2016 law designating such type of smuggling as economic sabotage.
In pushing for such distinct courts all over the country, Senator Cynthia Villar, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food and Agrarian Reform, said the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Law will be implemented effectively if there is a court dedicated to smuggling, hoarding, profiteering and cartel of agricultural products.
Addressing Tuesdayâs public hearing of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights on proposed Senate Bill No. 1963 seeking to establish such courts, Villar lamented that even with a law against agricultural smuggling, no smugglers have been charged with economic sabotage.
The Senate hearing was held jointly with the Committees on Agriculture, Food and Agrarian Reform, and Finance.
âWe intend to create an anti-agricultural smuggling court to ensure that the proper implementation of the law will be made,â Villar said, adding: âWe hope that those involved in the courts and the justice department will help us draft a law to implement the Anti-Agriculture Smuggling Act.â
Recalling that Congress in 2016 passed Republic Act 10817, now known as the Agri-Smuggling Act, Villar noted that the cut-off amount involved for an offense to be declared as economic sabotage, and deemed non-bailable, is P10 million for rice and P1 million for other agricultural commodities.
At the same time, she confirmed that lawmakers were also amending the Anti-Smuggling Act to give it more teeth and to include hoarding, price manipulation and cartel as economic sabotage and non-bailable.
Sen. Francis Tolentino, who chairs the Committee on Justice and Human Rights, presided at the hearing, and explained at the outset that Villar filed Senate Bill No. 1963 to address the seemingly uncontrollable spike of prices brought about by the âsmugglingâ of agricultural products.
Despite Republic Act No. 10845, or the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act of 2016, Tolentino lamented that smuggling of agricultural products continues unabated.
The main purpose of the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Court, he said, is to try cases involving smuggling, hoarding, profiteering and cartel of agricultural products and to ensure that individuals and organizations involved in these activities are held accountable for their actions.
Also at the hearing, Minority Leader Aquilino âKokoâ Pimentel III asked the Justice committee to review the Implementing Rules and Regulations (IRR) of Republic Act 10845.
He wanted the committee to determine âhow a simple law was made difficult to enforce because of a faulty IRR.â
âMaybe we can add a specific crime to the law like ârefusal to prosecute large-scale agricultural smuggling which will make liable the legal department (of the Bureau of Customs) and even the Department of Justice prosecutors, depending on the evidence,â Pimentel said. âThis is similar to obstruction of justice but very specific. In my opinion, this will be additional teeth to the law,â he added.
Pimentel also wanted to amend section 3 of RA 10845 by rewriting the phrase âas valued by the Bureau of Customsâ and involve the Department of Agriculture in the valuation of smuggled agricultural products in order to put flexibility to the law.
Image credits: Nonie reyes