Bill classifies hoarding, profiteering as economic sabotage

MANILA, Philippines — Hoarding and profiteering of vegetables, fruits, fish, meat and poultry will be punishable as economic sabotage under the proposed amendments to the Agricultural Smuggling Act, its principal author Sen. Joseph Victor Ejercito said.

The Senate deputy majority leader filed Senate Bill 1688, seeking to add more teeth to Republic Act 10845, saying Filipinos continue to be battered by high prices of basic farm produce, poultry, meat and fish while farmers are losing income due to smuggling.

“Our ultimate goal is safeguarding our farmers, consumers and the agricultural sector, and attaining the goal of food security for the country,” said Ejercito.

He said the country’s food security “was made worse by reports of smuggling and price manipulations by unscrupulous people.”

Aside from smuggling, hoarding, profiteering, and cartels of sugar, corn, pork, poultry, garlic, onion, carrots, fish and cruciferous vegetables in the amount of P1 million, or rice in the amount of P10 million, will be considered economic sabotage, according to the bill.

SB 1688 punishes hoarding, profiteering, and the cartels involved in agricultural products with imprisonment of no less than 17 years.

Those found guilty of the offenses will also be fined twice the fair market value of the profiteered, hoarded and cartelized agricultural product.

The aggregate amount of the taxes, duties and other charges avoided, on the other hand, shall be imposed on the officers of dummy corporations, non-government organizations, associations, cooperatives, or single proprietorships that knowingly sell, lend, lease, assign, consent or allow the unauthorized use of their import permits for purposes of profiteering, hoarding and cartels.

“The difficulty of the country to cope with other countries in terms of food security is apparent in the rising prices of basic commodities and the scarcity and shortage of such,” Ejercito said.

In the recent Economist’s 2021 Global Food Security Index, the Philippines ranked 64th out of 113 countries in terms of four dimensions of food security: food availability, food accessibility, food utilization and stability.

Meanwhile, Sen. Lito Lapid filed SB 1812 seeking to include tobacco and cigarettes in the list, composed of essential food items like rice, onions, sugar and meat.

However, Malayang Konsumer opposed Lapid’s proposition. The NGO said tobacco products should not be considered as a basic commodity since smoking is a vice.