Sen. Francis Escudero last week challenged the Bureau of Customs to file criminal charges against suspected hoarders and smugglers of rice to bolster the government’s alleged crackdown against alleged the rice cartel in the country.
Escudero made the remark following a string of raids on rice warehouses in Cavite province and Las Piñas City by the BOC, the latest of which netted an estimated P40 million worth of suspected smuggled rice from Vietnam, Thailand, and China.
Last week, the BOC also reported having seized more than 42,000 sacks of rice worth about P44 million from a warehouse in Zamboanga City.
The crackdown on rice hoarding came after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. imposed a price cap on the staple early this month and directed the BOC to raid suspected warehouses to combat hoarding and smuggling.
“It has been three weeks since (the Zamboanga raid), but why is there a seeming utter silence on the filing of charges against those involved?” the senator noted.
Escudero aired his disappointment when the Senate plenary tackled the committee report on Senate Bill No. 2432, which seeks to define the crimes of agricultural economic sabotage, provide penalties, and create an interagency council to implement the law, a measure that is supposed to be a priority of the President, who claims that smuggling, hoarding, profiteering and cartels are rife in the country.
SB 2432 defines agriculture economic sabotage as “any act or activity that disrupts the economy by creating artificial shortage, promoting excessive importation, manipulating price and supply, evading payment or underpayment of tariffs and customs duties, threatening local food production and food security, gaining excessive or exorbitant profits by exploiting situations, creating scarcity, and entering into agreements that defeat fair competition to the prejudice of the public.”
Are the authorities are still waiting for SB 2432 to be passed, before taking action? Are the raids just for photo opportunities and press releases? Whatever the reasons, the Filipino people who are bearing the burden of increasing prices of agricultural products, would like to see their government taking more action, in any way, shape or form.*
