THE Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food has invited four experts who conducted a study on technical smuggling of agricultural commodities over the past 24 years to a hearing on Monday.
These experts–Prudenciano Gordoncillo, Cesar Quicoy, Julieta de los Reyes and Arvin Vista–are from the College of Economics and Management of the University of the Philippines at Los Baños.
They were commissioned by Director Gil C. Saguiguit Jr. of the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca), to undertake the study funded by the Bureau of Agricultural Research of the Department of Agriculture.
Saguiguit said the trailblazing study, titled "An Assessment of Smuggling on Selected Agricultural Commodities in the Philippines,” was published this year by Searca as a policy brief.
He said the study will provide policy-makers with an exhaustive analysis of technical smuggling and provide them options in minimizing the economic problem.
"We hope that the study’s findings and recommendations will serve as a useful guide for instituting policy reforms toward stringent regulations and remedial options to address this important problem,” he said.
Saguiguit said Searca and its cooperating institutions are now focusing on such studies as a guide in the formulation of policies that are important to agricultural and rural development.
Chaired by Sen. Cynthia Villar, the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food is in the midst of an inquiry into the smuggling of rice, which Herculano "Joji” Co, president of the Philippine Confederation of Grains Associations and former Party-list Rep. Rafael Mariano of Anakpawis, chairman of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, claimed had intensified since the country acceded to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The data collected and analyzed by the team of Gordoncillo from local sources and from Indonesia and Singapore, as well as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Statistical Database and the UN Commission on Trade, showed that instead of abating, technical smuggling blossomed under a regime of trade liberalization and globalization.
The Gordoncillo study showed that from 1986 to 2009, the value of rice that entered the country through technical smuggling was $1.2 billion, followed by refined sugar at $448 million, beef at $428 million, onion at $259 million and pork at $117 million.
Experts say accession to WTO worsened smuggling problem
