Benguet farmers, Baguio council hit execs, illegal vegetable importation
>> Saturday, March 26, 2022
Lacson: Interagency conspiracy
LA TRINIDAD, Benguet –
Farmers, lawyers and the Baguio City Council denounced illegal importation of
vegetable to the country saying it was ruining the trade particularly in
Benguet, Baguio and other parts of the Cordillera.
For nine months now, Benguet farmers have been losing an estimate of P2.5 million daily because of illegally imported vegetables flooding the market.
This, according to the League of Associations at the La Trinidad Vegetable Trading Post (LALTVTP), as they decried non-invitation to the Farmers’ Congress conducted here recently.
The LALTVTP is the biggest agriculture-related organization in Benguet with around 10,000 members covering stakeholders of the vegetable trading industry based in this capital town.
The LALTVTP in their social media page said, “Contrary to what this top Benguet official claims, the stakeholders of the La Trinidad Vegetable Trading Areas nor the farmers' representative in our group were not invited at the Farmers' Congress conducted March 16 at the provincial capitol. Please stop lying and fooling the Benguet people. As the farmers’ congress is ongoing, smuggled carrots continue to flood Manila markets and provinces unabated.”
“If it were true that there was action against smuggling as claimed by these Benguet officials during the said congress, how come we could not feel the effect, why hasn’t smuggling stopped? We still could not sell our medium local carrots this morning), they said.
Augusta Balanoy, spokesperson of the group in an interview said, “We really feel so helpless that even our provincial government calls us liars despite pieces of evidence we have presented to them for the past months.”
Before the Senate inquiry on vegetable smuggling conducted on December 2021, the provincial government has denied that there is vegetable smuggling and accused the organization of using old recycled pictures in our social media pages and when we presented these as evidence to authorities as early as June 2021, Balanoy said.
“These smugglers are so brazen, despite our continuous complaints and with an ongoing Senate inquiry on the matter, illegally imported vegetables specifically carrots continue to flood the market.” Balanoy said.
Per volume, she said, around 38 million kilos of illegally imported carrots enter Philippine markets monthly.
LALTVTP has recorded 40% less orders in carrots in the past months.
“Smuggling never stopped for nine months now.” Balanoy said.
Meanwhile, lawyer Richard Kilaan said, “illegal importation is just a tip of the iceberg with problems hounding our farmer, the very reason why we founded, Farmers for Lawyers, basically to help our farmers in particular and the agricultural sector in general.”
“We are now looking into the possibility of filing court cases against the different government offices for the inaction of this problem which was originally brought to their offices more than nine months ago.” Kilaan said.
Lawyers for Farmers (LFF) is a group composed of lawyers for farmers' rights and legal initiatives.
It is a group that defends rights of farmers, with advocacy to inform, educate and empower the farmers in today's society, members said.
LFF, they added, assists farmers in litigation processes, regularly conduct legal awareness training, and actively participates in policy intervention and campaigns for farmers to benefit and have equal access to justice.
Earlier, during the Senate Inquiry on the matter, Sen. Panfilio Lacson said “Despite having what one study called the ‘eight toll gates of agricultural smuggling,’ why are there still too many smuggled goods that slip into our ports? I suspect what is involved is not interagency cooperation but interagency conspiracy”
In nearby Baguio, the city council, in a resolution Monday, denounced the proliferation of smuggled vegetables in the country.
Councilor Joel Alangsab, principal author of the ordinance, appealed to the Bureau of Customs and the Dept. of Agriculture to provide a permanent solution to smuggling of vegetables.
Alangsab said at least 250 vehicles of farmers, truckers, and other members of the League of Associations of the Vegetable Trading Post held a caravan last February at the main thoroughfares of La Trinidad, Benguet calling on government authorities to support the fight of the local farmers against the smuggling of carrots from China.
According to Alangsab, farmers and stakeholders of the Benguet Agri-Pinoy Trading Center and the Vegetable Trading Post are continuously collaborating with local government and concerned government agencies to curb said practice.
Aside from smuggled carrots, smuggled cabbages from China and imported strawberries from South Korea were also spotted in the markets nationwide.
The councilor said rampant smuggling activities continue to affect the local vegetable industry and endanger the livelihood of local farmers and traders in the region, stressing that the Cordillera region is the top producer of highland vegetables in the country. He said 80% of the vegetable supplies of Metro Manila and other lowland provinces come from the Cordillera Region. – With a report from Jordan G. Habbiling
For nine months now, Benguet farmers have been losing an estimate of P2.5 million daily because of illegally imported vegetables flooding the market.
This, according to the League of Associations at the La Trinidad Vegetable Trading Post (LALTVTP), as they decried non-invitation to the Farmers’ Congress conducted here recently.
The LALTVTP is the biggest agriculture-related organization in Benguet with around 10,000 members covering stakeholders of the vegetable trading industry based in this capital town.
The LALTVTP in their social media page said, “Contrary to what this top Benguet official claims, the stakeholders of the La Trinidad Vegetable Trading Areas nor the farmers' representative in our group were not invited at the Farmers' Congress conducted March 16 at the provincial capitol. Please stop lying and fooling the Benguet people. As the farmers’ congress is ongoing, smuggled carrots continue to flood Manila markets and provinces unabated.”
“If it were true that there was action against smuggling as claimed by these Benguet officials during the said congress, how come we could not feel the effect, why hasn’t smuggling stopped? We still could not sell our medium local carrots this morning), they said.
Augusta Balanoy, spokesperson of the group in an interview said, “We really feel so helpless that even our provincial government calls us liars despite pieces of evidence we have presented to them for the past months.”
Before the Senate inquiry on vegetable smuggling conducted on December 2021, the provincial government has denied that there is vegetable smuggling and accused the organization of using old recycled pictures in our social media pages and when we presented these as evidence to authorities as early as June 2021, Balanoy said.
“These smugglers are so brazen, despite our continuous complaints and with an ongoing Senate inquiry on the matter, illegally imported vegetables specifically carrots continue to flood the market.” Balanoy said.
Per volume, she said, around 38 million kilos of illegally imported carrots enter Philippine markets monthly.
LALTVTP has recorded 40% less orders in carrots in the past months.
“Smuggling never stopped for nine months now.” Balanoy said.
Meanwhile, lawyer Richard Kilaan said, “illegal importation is just a tip of the iceberg with problems hounding our farmer, the very reason why we founded, Farmers for Lawyers, basically to help our farmers in particular and the agricultural sector in general.”
“We are now looking into the possibility of filing court cases against the different government offices for the inaction of this problem which was originally brought to their offices more than nine months ago.” Kilaan said.
Lawyers for Farmers (LFF) is a group composed of lawyers for farmers' rights and legal initiatives.
It is a group that defends rights of farmers, with advocacy to inform, educate and empower the farmers in today's society, members said.
LFF, they added, assists farmers in litigation processes, regularly conduct legal awareness training, and actively participates in policy intervention and campaigns for farmers to benefit and have equal access to justice.
Earlier, during the Senate Inquiry on the matter, Sen. Panfilio Lacson said “Despite having what one study called the ‘eight toll gates of agricultural smuggling,’ why are there still too many smuggled goods that slip into our ports? I suspect what is involved is not interagency cooperation but interagency conspiracy”
In nearby Baguio, the city council, in a resolution Monday, denounced the proliferation of smuggled vegetables in the country.
Councilor Joel Alangsab, principal author of the ordinance, appealed to the Bureau of Customs and the Dept. of Agriculture to provide a permanent solution to smuggling of vegetables.
Alangsab said at least 250 vehicles of farmers, truckers, and other members of the League of Associations of the Vegetable Trading Post held a caravan last February at the main thoroughfares of La Trinidad, Benguet calling on government authorities to support the fight of the local farmers against the smuggling of carrots from China.
According to Alangsab, farmers and stakeholders of the Benguet Agri-Pinoy Trading Center and the Vegetable Trading Post are continuously collaborating with local government and concerned government agencies to curb said practice.
Aside from smuggled carrots, smuggled cabbages from China and imported strawberries from South Korea were also spotted in the markets nationwide.
The councilor said rampant smuggling activities continue to affect the local vegetable industry and endanger the livelihood of local farmers and traders in the region, stressing that the Cordillera region is the top producer of highland vegetables in the country. He said 80% of the vegetable supplies of Metro Manila and other lowland provinces come from the Cordillera Region. – With a report from Jordan G. Habbiling
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