Constitutionally infirm

Last December, the House of Representatives approved on final reading a bill seeking to amend Republic Act 10845, or the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act of 2016, to include large-scale
agricultural smuggling of tobacco and other tobacco products as a crime of economic sabotage.

With an overwhelming 225 votes, the Lower Chamber approved House Bill 3917 which amends
Section 3 of the law enumerating how the crime of large-scale agricultural smuggling is committed.

Under the amendment, the crime of economic sabotage through large-scale agricultural smuggling of tobacco, whether manufactured or unmanufactured, including finished products such as cigars,
cigarettes or heated tobacco products, with a minimum excise tax and value-added tax payable in amounting to P1 million as valued by the Bureau of Customs, is committed by importing into the
Philippines without the required import permit from the regulatory agencies; using import permits of persons, natural or juridical, other than those specifically named in the permit; or using fake, fictitious or fraudulent import permits or shipping documents, among others.

The current law only penalizes large-scale smuggling of sugar, corn, pork, poultry, garlic, onion, carrots, fish and cruciferous vegetables, in their raw state, or which have undergone the simple
processes of preparation or preservation for the market, with a minimum amount of P1 million or for rice, with a minimum amount of P10 million.

The bill also amends Section 4 of the law by imposing the penalty of imprisonment of 30 to 40 years, and a fine of twice the fair value and the aggregate amount of the taxes, duties and other charges avoided by the smuggling of tobacco, whether manufactured or unmanufactured,
including finished products such as cigars, cigarettes or heated tobacco products. These penalties may be imposed on registered owner and its lessee or charterer of a chartered boat, truck, warehouse or president or chief executive officer of the private port, fish port, fish landing sites, resorts, who knowingly transport the tobacco product subject to economic sabotage. The offense is non-bailable.

The authors of the bill include House Senior Deputy Majority Leader Ferdinand Alexander Marcos and House Majority Leader Manuel Dalipe, among others.

At the Senate, a bill was filed seeking to include the smuggling of tobacco, both in its raw form or as a finished product, as constituting economic sabotage.

Both proposals smack of constitutional infirmity.

This is because Article VI Section 26(1) of the 1987 Constitution itself prohibited the inclusion of riders when it provided that “every bill passed by the Congress shall embrace only one subject which shall be expressed in the title thereof.”

In a landmark ruling of the Supreme Court deciding en banc as early as 1968, it explained that this constitutional provision precludes the insertion of riders in legislation, a rider being a provision not germane to the subject matter of the bill.

What is the purpose of RA 10845?

The law, enacted in 2016, is entitled “An Act Declaring Large-Scale Agricultural Smuggling as Economic Sabotage, Prescribing Penalties Therefor and For Other Purposes.”

In Section 2, it provides that it is the policy of the State to promote the productivity of the agriculture sector and to protect farmers from unscrupulous traders and importers, who by their illegal importation of agricultural products, especially rice, significantly affect the production, availability of supply and stability of prices, and the food security of the State.

In Section 3, it provided for the crime of large-scale agricultural smuggling as economic sabotage, involving sugar, corn, pork, poultry, garlic, onion, carrots, fish and cruciferous vegetables, in their raw state, or which have undergone the simple processes of preparation or preservation for the market and the acts constituting the crime, while Section 4 provided for the penalties for their commission.

The Revised Penal Code does not define the crime of economic sabotage although there are laws that classify certain acts as economic sabotage. And one of these is RA 10845, which classified large-scale agricultural smuggling as economic sabotage.

Economic sabotage is a serious offense. In fact, RA 10845 imposed the penalty of life imprisonment and fine for large-scale agricultural smuggling.

In statutory construction, there is this rule that where general words follow an enumeration of persons or things, by words of a particular and specific meaning, such general words are not to be construed in their widest extent, but are to be held as applying only to persons or things of the same general kind or class as those specifically mentioned.  This rule is called the ejusdem generic rule.

There is also another rule of statutory construction on associated words or noscitur sociis which provides that where a particular word is equally susceptible of various meanings, its correct construction may be made specific by considering the company of terms in which it is found or with which it is associated.

By looking at the purpose of RA 10845 and the enumeration of products that follow the term agricultural in Section 3, it is obvious that what the law seeks to protect is food self-sufficiency and that the term agricultural (products) under this law only encompasses those that we eat. whether in raw form or those which have undergone simple processing of preparation or preservation.

How can tobacco and cigarettes be included in this enumeration, as contemplated by the proposed amendments to RA 10845?

All these food products enumerated under RA 10845 are essential. Tobacco products are non-essential. Tobacco may be an agricultural product but it is not something that we eat. Tobacco leaves do not undergo simple preparation or preservation to become cigarettes so tobacco products such as cigarettes are definitely non-agricultural and are not within the contemplation of RA 10845.

If the customs bureau and our borders cannot put a stop to cigarette smuggling, that’s the problem of law enforcement. After all, there are many laws and regulations already in place to curb smuggling of tobacco products. And yet, tobacco smuggling continues. Amending RA 10845 in a constitutionally infirm manner will not solve the problem.

Mining company cited

Filipino mining company Eramen Minerals Inc. was recently cited for its exceptional commitment, initiative, and innovation in environmental protection, safety, and health management by no less than the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB).

The company was bestowed the prestigious Presidential Mineral Industry Environmental Award (PMIEA) in the surface mining category and first runner-up in the Best Mining Forest in the Metallic Category at the 68th Annual National Mine Safety and Environment Conference in Baguio City.

In 2021, Eramen launched the Mine Environment Modernization Program which included the development of a new one-hectare forest nursery with a capacity to grow 500,000 seedlings.

The new nursery is also the location of Eramen’s forestry research laboratory which was put up to boost the cultivation of high-quality seedlings, particularly the Mindoro Pines, using in vitro germination. The program also included silvicultural training and a waste-to-nutrient project that captures biological macro-elements, such as nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus, and beneficial micro-elements to produce cytokinin enhancers for seedlings.

Eramen has planted over 510,000 trees covering more than 657 hectares in mined-out sites, buffer zones, NGP, and DENR-Eramen bamboo plantation program areas.

In addition to the forest nursery, Eramen also developed an organic agroforestry farm to grow a variety of fruits, vegetables, and other crops. It maintains a program to manage air quality through road watering activities by installing road water sprinklers spanning nine kilometers. Meanwhile, it addresses siltation issues through a combination of mega silt ponds and a company-developed filtration module in all discharge points to filter sediment and fine silts.

Eramen invested P50 million in its mine environmental management for 2021-2022 alone and another P36 million for its social development and management program and CSR projects for the same period.

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