Abono files anti-smuggling bill
ECONOMIC SABOTAGE
THE Abono party-list has filed a bill in the House of Representatives to effectively combat smuggling of agricultural products and declare the illegal activity a form of economic sabotage.
Rosendo So, Abono chair and Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (Sinag) president said that House Bill No. 4767, otherwise known as the “Direct and Technical Smuggling as Economic Sabotage Act of 2014,” will help local producers and manufacturers compete and eliminate unfair competition.
HB No. 4767, authored by Abono partylist Representatives Francisco Emmanuel “Pacoy” Ortega III and Conrado Estrella III, seeks to amend Presidential Decree No. 1464, or “The Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines,” and to define smuggling as an act that constitutes economic sabotage.
“Imagine the taxes lost because of smuggling and its impact on local farmers who cannot compete with the low prices of smuggled goods,” said So in a statement.
So, citing information gathered by Abono, said a total of P65-billion worth of agricultural products like rice, pork and poultry, among others were smuggled into the country in 2012 and 2013.
“Considering the far-reaching effect of smuggling to the Philippine economy and to Filipinos regardless of their socio-economic status, smuggling should be considered as a form of economic sabotage” Ortega and Estrella said in the bill’s explanatory note.
Under HB No. 4767, people caught engaging in smuggling and technical smuggling of goods worth a minimum of P1 million would be penalized by a fine equal to twice the fair market value of the smuggled articles; a fine equal to the aggregate amount of the taxes, duties and other charges avoided; imprisonment of a minimum of eight years and a day up to life imprisonment and confiscation of the smuggled articles.
Technical smuggling, it said, refers to the act of importing or bringing into the Philippines, any product “through fraudulent, falsified or erroneous declarations for the purpose of, or which result into, evasion of payment of applicable duties and taxes and/or evasion of the rules and regulations of the Bureau of Customs.”
In January, Senator Joseph Victor G. Ejercito filed Senate Bill No. 2082, “An Act Declaring Rice Smuggling as Act of Economic Sabotage . . .”
So asked Malacanang and Congress to give priority for the immediate passage of HB No. 4767 and Senate Bill No. 2082. (Tita Roces)
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