By Manny Piñol
Following the discovery the resurgence of smuggling operations in the Port of Manila involving agricultural products, I have asked Bureau of Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña to place under “Alert Status” all incoming shipments declared to contain agricultural products.
This means that all containers arriving at the Port of Manila and in other ports all over the country from foreign sources will now be subjected to mandatory inspection.
Yesterday, following an information which I received last week, I joined a team of Customs officials led by Commissioner Lapeña himself which went to the Manila International Container Port (MICP) in Manila to inspect at least 17 40-foot refrigerated containers which were declared to contain apples.
I was joined by Undersecretary for Operations Ariel Cayanan and Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) acting director George Culaste, including personnel of the BPI Quarantine Service assigned at the Port of Manila.
Before the actual operations at MICP, I paid a call on Comm. Lapeña, a friend for so many years now and a battle-hardened former Constabulary Officer who saw action in Cotabato as a young lieutenant, in his office in the Port Area of Manila.
Officially, I transmitted to him the information and documents on the 40-foot containers declared as “Apples” which arrived last week at the MICP but which sources said actually contained “Onions” from China.
Comm. Lapeña immediately acted on my request and ordered Customs personnel to join him in conducting an On-The-Spot inspection of the containers in the MICP.
It took us 4 long hours before we succeeded in opening the first container which was already loaded in a truck and ready to leave the compound when intercepted by the group of Usec Cayanan last week.
The absence of an independent broker to witness the opening of the containers made Comm. Lapeña and I wait for several hours under the heat of the sun and the dust in the MICP.
Both of us, however, understood what was going on – there was a deliberate effort to delay the opening by people involved in the smuggling operations believing perhaps that an Agriculture Secretary and a Customs Commissioner would not have the patience to stay in the compound for hours.
Comm. Lapeña and I, however, were laughing inside a Coaster which arrived later in the area at the desperate attempt to waylay our efforts.
As a former Constabulary officer operating in the jungles of Cotabato along with my brother, also a Constabulary enlisted man and later police officer Patricio, Comm. Lapeña is used to waiting for days in the battlefield for the enemy.
As a former newsman and a farmer myself, I am also used to waiting. In fact, I believe that the most patient people on this planet are the farmers because they plant crops and wait for these to bear fruit after five years.
After almost four hours, our patience paid off as the first container indeed yielded what we suspected at first, Onions, some of which were just placed in paper boxes and were not even cleaned of its roots and soil.
All other containers opened in quick succession after that all yielded Onions.
In view of the development, I officially requested Comm. Lapeña to order all his officials in the different ports all over the country to place on “Alert Status” all shipments declared as agricultural products.
This is intended to address once and for all the lucrative illegal activity of bringing in agricultural products – including beef, pork, Indian Buffalo meat, chicken, garlic, fish and even vegetables like Carrots – which not only defrauds government of revenues but also adversely affects our farmers and fishermen.
The unchecked entry of these products also pose a serious risk on Philippine agriculture because pests and diseases could be brought in since these are not covered by Sanitary and Pytho-Sanitary (SPS) inspections.
(Photos of yesterday’s anti-smuggling operations in the MICP taken by DA-AFID and OSEC staff.)
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