SENATE PROBES ONION SMUGGLING

Sen. Loren Legarda yesterday called on the government to stop the smuggling of onions into the country in order to protect the livelihood of more than 500,000 farmers, workers and traders involved in local onion production and merchandising.

Loren made the statement during the hearing conducted jointly by the Senate committee on food and agriculture, headed by Loren, and the Committees on Trade and Commerce and Ways and Means.

According to Ernesto Ordonez, chair of Agriwatch, of the four raids conducted on smuggled onions, the first three failed "due to lack of preparation either because of plain incompetence or feigned ignorance so that the raids would intentionally fail."

He said that the fourth raid partly succeeded, but the confiscation of the suspected illegally imported onions was delayed pending certification by the Bureau of Plant Industry that they were indeed imported without permit.

Since then, the bags of smuggled onions were confiscated but onion farmer observers discovered that the bags had been tampered with, the volume now smaller and good onions replaced with rotten ones. In addition, the source of these smuggled onions has not been charged.

Rodolfo Niones, president of the Katipunan ng mga Samahang Magsisibuyas ng Nueva Ecija (KASAMNE), said that rampant smuggling of onions, done without permit from the Department of Agriculture, was endangering the livelihood of 500,000 stakeholders, including 125,000 onion farmers, farm workers and their families, as well as legitimate traders.

He estimated the annual local production of onions at 100,000 metric tons valued at P5 billion.

The Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) is the agency tasked with monitoring local production levels of onions and issuing import permits to cover deficits and satisfy local demand.

In August 2006, BPI temporarily suspended issuing permits following reports that 23.2 million kilograms of locally produced onions, valued at P825 million, were stuck in warehouses and could not be sold due to the presence of cheap onions in the market. Presently, the issuance of import permits for onions has been suspended again, with the last being issued on December 2008. The smuggled onions are estimated to be selling for P28/kg while local onions are sold at P50/kg. Thus, local farmers are unable to sell their produce without incurring losses and endangering their livelihoods.

Loren told the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to be more vigilant in stopping the smuggling of onions to protect the income and welfare of farmers and workers in the onion industry. In order to monitor progress, it was resolved in the Committee Hearing that the BOC will submit the Inward Foreign Manifests (IFM) of the 200 containers that arrive from China every day, to the NGOs concerned, on or before 12 noon the day prior to their arrival. Copies will be furnished to the Senate. It was said in the hearing that 80% of the smuggled goods come from China.

Loren also said that she will look into the smuggling of all agricultural products as there are also reports of other smuggled goods flooding the markets and lowering prices to the detriment of local farmers.

From 2002 to 2007, it was estimated that around P120 billion of government revenues were lost to smuggling in general, aggravating the government's budget deficit problems aside from threatening the livelihood of our poor farmers.