Tañada urges colleagues to pass anti-smuggling bill

The congressman-son of former senator Wigberto Tañada led his colleagues in urging their counterparts in the Senate yesterday to pass the bill on anti-smuggling which the House of Representatives approved last year.

Quezon Rep. Lorenzo "Erin" Tañada said the senators should show their sincerity in stamping out, or at least reducing, the P100 billion to P150 billion worth of goods annually that are illegally sneaked into the country, without payment of the right taxes.

The bill entitled "Anti-Smuggling Act of 2005" is expected to recover at least P90 billion in lost government revenues every year, Tañada pointed out.

After the House approved the bill in June 2005, it immediately transmitted to the Senate the proposed measure, which has since been pending in the committee of finance chaired by Sen. Ralph Recto.

Tañada was one of the principal authors of the anti-smuggling measure, which was also a product of intense debate by House members to make sure the Department of Finance (DOF) moved to "expedite" the probe and prosecution of suspected big-time smugglers.

The anti-smuggling measure sent by the House to the Senate contained strict provisions against technical smuggling, which criminalizes fraud, misdeclaration or falsification of import documents.

"It is now the turn of the senators to show sincerity in helping government fight smuggling. They simply have to act on the bill which has plugged all probable loopholes in the present anti-smuggling laws," Tañada said.

The P90-billion projected revenues, Tañada noted, is P20 billion higher than the implementation of the expanded value-added tax law, which is expected to generate some P70 billion for government coffers.

According to Tañada, the proposed anti-smuggling law is the first revenue measure to receive unanimous support from both administration and opposition congressmen.

At the same time, the Quezon lawmaker urged the DOF to act on all smuggling cases pending before the Bureau of Customs, Bureau of Internal Revenue and the regional trial courts.

The Customs filed last week 13 cases against several personalities believed to be suspected big-time smugglers in the country, while the BIR sued Chinese businessman Samuel Lee for tax evasion amounting to P78 million.

The anti-smuggling bill is one of the 494 House bills transmitted to the Senate.

The seeming inaction by the Senate on House-approved bills and the statement made by Sen. Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr. deploring the quality of the measures emanating from the House bills sparked a word war between lawmakers of both chambers of Congress.

So far, "only three" of the House-approved measures have been acted upon by senators, among which are the Juvenile Justice System Bill, the P13.1-billion supplemental budget for government employees and the Special Purpose Asset Vehicles Act of 2002.

The rest, according to House Majority Leader Prospero Nograles, "have not been moving in the Senate" notwithstanding the urgency of the measures as certified by Malacañang.

Nograles led congressmen in pointing out that "if only" the Senate "could stop spending so much time on these investigations and give more time and attention to their mandate, bills would be enacted into laws faster."

Nograles earlier complained that House-approved bills have been gathering dust in the opposition-dominated Senate, as senators have been preoccupied with investigations that are obviously aimed at embarrassing President Arroyo.

Aside from the Anti-Smuggling Act, among the House bills transmitted to the Senate that have been gathering dust are the Tax Amnesty Law, the Consolidated Investment Incentives Code, the Bio-Ethanol Bill, the Condonation of Penalties for Low-cost Housing Bill and many others.