Lawmaker supports SBMA anti-smuggling drive

Rep. Rodel Batocabe of party-list group Ako Bicol has expressed support for the anti-smuggling campaign of Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) chairman Martin Diño.

“Smuggling is a heinous crime that deprives the government and the people of taxes. If you smuggle, you are like a termite and a leech. Smugglers suck our coffers dry, deprive our people of the needed services and kill our jobs and industries,” he said.

Batocabe supports the anti-smuggling drive not only of the SBMA, but also of other state agencies as well.

Batocabe will ask the authors of the death penalty bill in the House of Representatives to include smuggling in their measure.

“It is economic sabotage. For instance, unabated rice smuggling will kill rice farming and render our rice farmers jobless,” he said.

Batocabe cited the discovery by Diño and his people early this week of 260,000 bags of rice from Thailand that were about to be unloaded at the Subic free port.

“We stopped the unloading of the rice to give us time to verify if the import permit from the National Food Authority is genuine. So far, the NFA has not responded to our query,” Diño said.

He said they are on alert for rice shipments covered by fake permits in the wake of reports that smugglers were recycling NFA import documents.

The supposed permit covering the Thai rice cargo was issued last Dec. 29 in favor of Labangan Farmers First Consolidated Multi-Purpose Cooperative, Multi-Grain Multi-Purpose Cooperative, Adda Latta Namnama Multi-Purpose Cooperative, Magsaysay Farmers Multi-Purpose and Transport Services Cooperative, and Sto. Niño Farmers Cooperative. It was valid for seven days.

Diño found it strange that two of the farmers’ organizations, which are based in Mindanao, would import and unload rice through the Subic port.

The importers could have brought in their shipment through ports in Mindanao, he said.

Diño said Labangan multi- purpose cooperative (MPC) is based in Bulanit, Labangan, Zamboanga del Sur; Magsaysay MPC in Magsaysay, Davao del Sur; MultiGrain in San Miguel, Bulacan; and Adda Latta in Natividad, Pangasinan; while Ligaya and Sto. Niño are cooperatives in Sablayan, Occidental Mindoro.