MANILA, Philippines – The House of Representatives amped up its pursuit of smugglers, hoarders of agricultural products with a new mega panel, the “quinta” committee, or the Murang Pagkain Super Committee.
The quinta committee, after a resolution which House Speaker Martin Romualdez co-authored himself, follows the lower chamber’s investigation on the onion crisis in 2023 and the recent passage of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s anti-economic sabotage law.
In its first hearing on Tuesday, November 26, the resounding issue that lawmakers wanted answered as apparent from their line of questioning was: Who gets punished over the high prices of rice?
Early in the inquiry, Albay 2nd District Representative Joey Salceda asked officials from the Department of Agriculture (DA) if they had identified smugglers of imported rice. DA Assistant Secretary Carlos Carag said they already have a “long list.”
Meanwhile, Marikina 2nd District Representative Stella Quimbo asked for a list of top rice importers, then afterwards asked bluntly about the existence of cartels in the rice industry.
“It seems like there are certain either sectors or individuals who are actually manipulating prices,” said Carag.
But the DA official said they are “still in the process of studying” the system, and thus cannot directly answer what the modus operandi of the cartel is.
Toward the end, Quimbo asked Carag, “Are smugglers the cartels?”
“Definitely there’s price manipulation, Ma’am, but I do not say–“
“So are you saying that smugglers are also the cartel operators?”
“I cannot say in definite terms.”
Marcos policy
In September, Marcos signed Republic Act No. 12022 or the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act, characterizing economic sabotage as a non-bailable offense.
Due to agricultural smuggling, the Philippines lost P3 billion in 2023, according to Marcos.
The law defined economic sabotage as an activity that “disrupts the economy” through profiteering, price manipulation, excessive importations, creation of artificial shortage.
The DA already has a “long list” of smugglers, Carag said during the hearing. This list, unlike the list of top rice importers, was not presented or read aloud on Tuesday.
But going after smugglers is a long shot, Jayson Cainglet, executive director of Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura, told Rappler.
Cainglet said that instead, lawmakers should focus on the huge volume of imported rice that came in this year (4.162 million metric tons imported as of November 21, according to the Bureau of Plant Industry) and why it did not lower prices.
“Kung P35 ang landed cost, bakit P50 [ang bentahan]?” (If the landed cost of imported rice is at P35, why are they selling it at P50?)
This assessment of volume in relation to prices put in sharp relief the need to monitor supplies in warehouses.
But according to the DA, majority of storage facilities are not registered. Cainglet mentioned the modus operandi of the alleged onion cartel.
“Hindi alam saan napupunta ang supply,” he said. (We don’t know where supplies go.)
DA: No enforcement powers
A huge thorn on DA’s side is that they do not have law enforcement powers.
“The inspectorate enforcement of DA has no mandate for law enforcement,” said Carag, who heads this office. “When we do operations we have to coordinate with the NBI, Coast Guard, Customs, and other law enforcement agencies.”
To recall, it was the National Bureau of Investigation that Marcos turned to when he wanted the alleged onion cartel, smugglers, and hoarders investigated.
This lack of power also manifests in the monitoring of rice storage warehouses — a critical point in the supply chain. Those unregistered are effectively out of government regulation.
“We can only inspect under the regulatory powers of the DA those that are registered,” said Carag. “Majority are not registered. So we cannot inspect those that are not yet registered.”
According to Glenn Panganiban, director of BPI, there are a total of 626 warehouses registered to the agency as of 2024.
Under the new economic sabotage law, individuals who own warehouses and cold storage facilities are required to register with regulatory agencies and submit reports on operations every month. – Rappler.com