A shopper group is looking for the fast passage of a measure that may increase the protection of the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act.
Malayang Konsumer spokesperson Atty. Simoun Salinas has issued a press release supporting the approval of Senate Bill 1688, saying the proposed amendments are “a timely intervention given the rising prices of goods like onions.”
“[A]mendments aimed at improving the law should focus on offenses that are harmful to Filipino consumers and households, those crimes we consider to be large-scale and prevalent [enough] to amount to economic sabotage. That’s why SB 1688 includes profiteering, hoarding, and the like,” Salinas mentioned.
MK convenor Christian Real mentioned that “smuggling of essential food items is a big concern, but it’s not the only problem we need to address.”
“May supply ka nga, tinatago naman at ipinagkakait sa merkado. Hindi nga smuggled ang food items, pero ang mahal naman ng presyo dahil kontrolado ng cartel at ng mga mapagsamantala at ganid na grupo,” mentioned Real.
In January, Senator JV Ejercito filed Senate Bill 1688, which seeks to contemplate hoarding, profiteering, and cartels on sugar, corn, pork, poultry, garlic, onion, carrots, fish, and cruciferous greens within the quantity of P1 million or rice within the quantity of P10 million as financial sabotage.
SB 1688 additionally seeks to create an Inter-Agency Council on Economic Intelligence, which will likely be composed of representatives from the Department of Agriculture, Department of Trade and Industry, Bureau of Customs, Department of Justice, National Bureau of Investigation, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Philippine National Police, Philippine Competition Commission, National Security Council, and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency. — VBL, GMA Integrated News
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
