Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla yesterday said officials of the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Customs have a lot of explaining to do concerning the rampant smuggling of onions and garlic into the country.
“We demand an explanation from the BoC and the DA regarding these developments,” Remulla said, alluding to what he described as the apparent total control onion and garlic smugglers have over the commodities’ supply chain.
In his second State of the Nation Address last Monday, Marcos vowed to stop hoarders and smugglers dead in their tracks, saying “their days are numbered.”
Remulla said smugglers have been buying up the harvest of local farmers to influence supply and demand and, consequently, command higher prices for onions and garlic when they release them into the market.
Smugglers, he added, have been hoarding the commodities and keeping them in cold storage to create artificial shortages.
If true, the activities cited by Remulla would be a violation of Republic Act 10845, which classifies large-scale agricultural smuggling as economic sabotage punishable by life imprisonment.
“Smugglers have essentially taken over the industry, orchestrating its operations using significant capital resources and even private storage facilities,” he said.
He stressed that “it is inconceivable” that the BoC and the DA are not aware of the smugglers’ activities, including their having set up an intricate control and distribution system.
“They (smugglers) possess substantial financial resources, enabling them to purchase entire harvests, and they maintain dominance over all imports. This has severely compromised the existing system,” Remulla said.
From planting to harvesting to storage and distribution, smugglers have applied a stranglehold on the system to control the pricing of onions and garlic, Remulla said. He described the setup as highly sophisticated, with the smugglers demonstrating a mastery of the field.
He said DA and BoC officials must also explain why agricultural products from other countries are flooding the Philippines.
In May, the Philippine National Police reported that from 2019 to April 2023, onions were the third most smuggled commodity into the country, after counterfeit products and tobacco products.
However, the P137.6-million worth of onions that Brig. Gen. Romeo Caramat Jr. said illegally entered the country during that period, was too paltry compared to the estimates cited in congressional investigations.
Key players
Remulla said there were over 20 key players in the onion and garlic cartel in the country, including a certain “Queen Bee,” against whom the DoJ will file charges soon.
“We have successfully identified the key players. The cases will be filed at the appropriate time. Currently, we are meticulously verifying the specifics of their modus operandi,” he said.
As for the “Queen Bee,” Remulla said, “That’s what they call her, the Queen Bee. But we are also looking at other individuals. When it comes to the different regions, the main person in control holds around 55 to 60 percent of the operations.”
The DoJ is set to also summon officials of the Bureau of Plant Industry, an agency under the DA, to present onion importation documents covering the past decade.
Remulla said the President himself ordered the DoJ to form an Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Task Force which will have as members seasoned prosecutors.
After nine hearings, the Agriculture and Food Committee of the House of Representatives concluded that a cartel has been conspiring with the Philippine Vegetable Importers, Exporters and Vendors Association or PhilVIEVA to raise onion prices.
The trading, import, cold storage, and trucking companies allegedly involved in the smuggling were all linked to PhilVIEVA.
According to a House subcommittee, a cartel is to blame for the price increases.
Rep. Stella Quimbo said PhilVIEVA is a fully-equipped group that can control the supply of onions throughout the country, as farmers have to contend with the lack of space in cold storage facilities.
During the House hearings, operators said the facilities were filled with onions. Quimbo said that if there was more than enough supply, onion prices should not have surged.
Quimbo went on to accuse Lilia “Leah” Cruz, the organizer of PhilVIEVA, of being the leader of the onion cartel.
“If at the first hearing Leah Cruz was the denial queen, by hearing number nine, to us she was the undisputed onion queen,” Quimbo said.
“That’s why we are calling on the NBI, PCC, and the DA’s enforcement section, let’s all help each other, the ball is in your court, peel away the onion cartel,” she said.
Cruz is also reportedly a major shareholder in Golden Shine International Freight Forwarders Corporation, a trucking company affiliated with PhilVIEVA.