DA: 4 importers to be blacklisted

MANILA, Philippines — Four importers of agricultural products will be blacklisted amid their involvement in smuggling activities, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. revealed yesterday.

“We have four (importers to be blacklisted), one for rice, two for fisheries and one for sugar. Blacklisting is the easiest way as, if you charge them, the evidence is not enough. It happened in the past but not in my time,” Tiu Laurel said at a press conference, adding that the blacklisting would be done in the coming months.

“We will see in a few months, many companies will be blacklisted. Those involved in smuggling. Even if they are my friends, I will blacklist them,” he vowed.

He said the Department of Agriculture (DA) is currently gathering evidence against unscrupulous companies.

According to the agriculture chief, he already blacklisted a rice importer after being involved in underdeclaration.

“We cancelled its import permit after we caught it. It only declared 20 percent (of the total volume),” Tiu Laurel said, referring to a rice shipment that arrived in Batangas.

He said he already addressed the loophole in the system of the Bureau of Plant Industry.

“Before the importer only declared 20 percent as we assumed that only 20 percent would be unloaded and it unloaded the rest after arriving at the next destination. When we caught (the importer), he presented an additional Sanitary and Phytosanitary Import Clearance. As the additional SPSICs were prepared, we could not stop them from unloading but they have to pay the 100 percent tax,” Tiu Laurel said.

Under a new DA regulation, Tiu Laurel said the importer would need to declare the volume of the entire shipment.

“I issued a rule that once the ship arrives from the origin, after 24 hours, (the importer) needs to declare to the Bureau of Customs (BOC), to us, the number of valid SPSICs,” he added.

At the same time, Tiu Laurel noted that a meat importer even tried to bribe him after at least 20 container vans were confiscated and ordered burned in the condemnation facility.

“The BOC caught the shipments. They were sent to a condemnation facility for burning. We saw that the contents of the container van were being transferred to a truck to be sold (in the market). They tried to bribe me initially for P250,000 per container. It went up to P1 million (per container). We burned all of them (20 containers). We will not destroy our reputation by that (offer),” he said.

According to Tiu Laurel, smugglers often declare the shipment as processed products but authorities discovered that the farm products like chicken and Peking duck were hidden at the back of the container vans.

“Processed goods are not under DA, its FDA (Food and Drug Administration). So, we will enter an agreement with Director General (Samuel Zacate) within the year, they will deputize the DA to be their enforcement. If that happens, we will further solve smuggling,” he said.