ALARMED by the recent attempted smuggling of rice worth P67.9 million from Zamboanga Sibugay, senators urged for an immediate investigation of the incident, stressing that those behind the activity should be unmasked and the vessels involved penalized or even sunk.
Senate President Pro Tempore Ralph Recto said an investigation is a must as he encouraged proper government agencies that those ships carrying smuggled goods like rice, drugs or luxury cars should be seized, confiscated “and if allowed by law, be destroyed and sunk.”
Recto described penalizing ships used in rice smuggling can be the strongest deterrent to the illegal importation of farm products, which harm the livelihood of millions of farmers.
At the same, Recto pointed out that forfeiture of vessels are allowed under Philippine law as he cited Section 1113 (a) of R.A. No. 10863 otherwise known as the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act.
“If not destroyed, confiscated ships can be repurposed like carriers of relief goods to calamity areas or research ships to Benham rise,” Recto said.
Senator Paolo Benigno "Bam" Aquino IV said those smugglers engaged in the proliferation of illegal drugs and rice smuggling in the country could be one and the same.
“Imbestigahan na para malaman kung sino ang sangkot sa smuggling ng bigas. Posibleng pare-pareho ang mga sindikatong nagpapasok ng droga at iba pang illegal goods,” Aquino said.
Senator Francis Kiko Pangilinan for his part lauded the Naval Forces Western Mindanao for intercepting the rice shipment off Oluntanga Island in Zamboanga Sibugay on Saturday night.
Based on reports, Naval Task Force 61 intercepted M/V Diamond 8, which was found to be carrying 27,180 sacks or around 1,359 metric tons of Vietnam rice.
“We laud the Navy for doing its job of protecting our territorial waters from bad elements and from those who are trying to make quick money out of our countrymen,” said Pangilinan.
Agriculture watchdog Samahang industriya ng Agrikultura said that around P200 billion in farm products were smuggled into the country in the last five years, causing government to lost P60 billion to P80 billion in revenues.
Smuggled oil, on the other hand, deprived government of about P27 billion in taxes and duties in 2016, according to an estimate by the Finance Department. (PS Jun M. Sarmiento/SunStar Philippines)