MANILA – Agriculture Secretary William Dar expressed confidence on Wednesday that President-elect and incoming Agriculture chief Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. will take action on agricultural smuggling issues that diminish the value of local production.
The outgoing chief said in the Laging Handa public briefing that they are intensifying efforts to collect evidence to ensure corrupt personnel are held accountable.
“Dapat iyon po ang isang pagtuunan po. Yes, malaki po ang tiwala natin (That should be the focus. Yes, we have high trust [on president-elect Marcos]),” he said.
This, after Senate President Vicente Sotto III provided the “list of [people] allegedly involved in agricultural smuggling” to the incoming chief executive.
He also noted that the Department of Agriculture’s probe is still ongoing to trace those behind these malicious practices, even imposing preliminary actions against some personnel.
“It has to be kung ano iyong report ng Senate and the House, pananagutin kung dapat sinong managot (what should be in the report of the Senate and the House, must be held accountable). Number two, we continue to do our collection of evidence, kasi (because) we need to really have evidence to nail down our people. Mayroon na kami (We already have). Meanwhile, we have reassigned some of these people doon sa areas na hindi nila maituloy iyong (so they cannot continue their) malpractices nila,” he added.
The DA earlier stated that smuggling is done technically when violators subject themselves to legal procedures of acquiring an import permit or accreditation, but misuse or misdeclare products.
Meanwhile, Dar disagreed with the widely criticized “special importation” approach of the department, which allegedly harmed the local production of goods.
“Wala pong katotohanan iyong ganoon na policy direction…. pinapatupad po natin ang (There’s no truth to that… we are implementing the) food security goal. We boost the productivity of various commodities in agriculture the best we could, based on the limitations of budget and the like. So kung anuman iyong pagkukulang (So whatever the deficiencies), then you have to augment that,” he said.
He also mentioned that the department is ready to turn over their short-, medium-, and long-term programs and plans to Marcos, although this has not been scheduled yet.
According to Dar, the key issues that must be addressed include increasing local production, the transferring of the Food Terminal System to the DA to increase food stock in Metro Manila, and the increasing of rice buffer stock or the procurement of locally-produced rice for the National Food Authority (NFA).
“So, they will be granted concessional loans from the DBP [Development Bank of the Philippines]… Our overall recommendation is 30 days with NFA buffer stock, and 30 days with local government. That will be the day also where the prices of palay are stabilized during harvest time because there’s huge exposure for the national government and local governments. And that has to be one of those marching orders of the incoming President,” he said.
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