MANILA: A group pushing for the passage of bills declaring smuggling as economic sabotage will meet anew on June 4 with lawmakers to discuss some issues and concerns.
Rosendo So, president of Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG), said the discussion would revolve around salient points being advocated by Senators Cynthia Villar and JosephVictor “JV” Ejercito in their separate bills that seek to declare smuggling of agricultural crops as economic sabotage.
Senate Bill 2965 filed recently by Villar, chair of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food, aims to declare certain acts of agricultural smuggling as economic sabotage.
Ejercito also filed earlier SB2082 that seeks to address the growing and unresolved cases of rice smuggling in the country by defining the crime as economic sabotage due to its inimical effects on the national interest, economic growth and development.
So, whose is also the president of Abono party-list, said their party-list representatives Conrado Estrella III and Francisco Emmanuel Ortega III have also filed House Bill 4767, an act amending a Presidential Decree otherwise known as the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines, to define smuggling as an act that constitutes economic sabotage.
So said some senators he had talked to including Francis Escudero, Edgardo Angara III, and Teofisto Guingona III, have also signified willingness to help in the fight against smuggling and support Villar’s and Estrada’s bills.
The bills consider the far-reaching detrimental effect of smuggling on the Philippine economy and to Filipinos, regardless of their socio-economic status.
So said there is an urgent need to pass the House and Senate’s measures to put more teeth in the fight against smuggling.
“We have to explain why smuggling must be declared economic sabotage so that once approved, there would be no bail for smugglers,” he said.
He added that “right now, smugglers are going scot-free, laughing.”
“These bills must be passed to give them something to be afraid of and they must pay correct taxes and help in the process our farmers,” he said.
He added that “compared to previous years, smuggling today has been minimized, but not yet eradicated.”
