PHILIPPINES, CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga – Onion and vegetable farmers in central and northern Luzon are urging newly-appointed Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala to adopt an “iron-fist” method in dealing with big-time smugglers who have been blamed for destroying the livelihood of more than 500,000 farmers and their families.
The farmers also lauded President Noynoy Aquino for appointing Alcala, a farmer himself and former governor of the province of Quezon, whom they described as “an official with a proven-track record of incorruptible public service and who understands that “the livelihood of farmers is the backbone of our economy.”
Magtanggol Alvarez, founding president of the Union of Growers and Traders of Onions of the Philippines (UGAT), said his group as well as vegetable growers all over Luzon and the Ilocos region were hopeful that Alcala will be their ally in fighting the well-entrenched smugglers and corrupt Customs officials whom they called as the “incurable pests” that is killing the onion industry.
Alvarez, who hails from Bongabon, Nueva Ecija, considered as the onion basket of the country, believes that Alcala will succeed where his predecessors have failed — put an end to onion smuggling.
In the past few years, thousands of metric tons of smuggled onions from China and India aboard 40-footer container vans have been intercepted at the Manila International Container Port (MICP), South Harbor including the ports in Subic and Batangas but ultimately found their way to Divisoria and other public markets of the country.
This unabated smuggling and dumping of sub-standard onions that have not passed quarantine and phyto-sanitary inspection for their harmful pests residues are blamed by local farmers for the abnormally depressed price of onions that deprive them of profits from their hard labor in growing their crops.
Alvarez believes that with Secretary Alcala, the onion industry and the vegetable growers in the Cordilleras will be able to recover this year and see a more stable future for their families.