The Department of Agriculture (DA), in partnership with the Bureau of Customs (BOC), inspected P2 million worth of seized red onions on Tuesday, June 24 in Misamis Oriental.
The DA’s Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) and the BOC intercepted the smuggled red onions weighing around 25 metric tons (MT) at the Mindanao International Container Terminal on June 11 in line with President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s directives to intensify the campaign against agricultural smuggling.
“Nagpapasalamat kami sa BOC at kay (We thank the BOC and) District collector Arthur Sevilla of Mindanao Container Terminal. Sa mabilis na coordination ng DA-BPI at BOC, hindi na nakalabas ang mga smuggled onion sa mga pamilihan,” Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said in a statement.
The smuggled red onions arrived at the port in Misamis Oriental on May 26 from China.
The shipment was misdeclared as “frozen goods” like egg noodles, croissant dough, pizza dough, buns, and spring rolls.
It was consigned to a Manila-based company named Lantix Consumer Goods Trading.
“We intend to go after these unscrupulous traders with the full force of the law,” Tiu Laurel said.
On Monday, the DA said it is not “clueless” about the agricultural smuggling challenges in the country, citing plans to request an enforcement function against illicit traders.
The department also vowed to intensify collaboration with the Philippine National Police (PNP) and other law enforcement agencies to pin down smugglers and hold them liable under the Anti-Agricultural Economic and Sabotage Law.
Besides stringent measures at the country’s borders, the DA and PNP also committed to conducting inspections to ensure that smuggled goods would not proliferate in the local market, alongside a “bottom-up” tracing of sources of the illegal shipments.PNA
