The Department of Agriculture is asking Congress to expand the anti-economic sabotage law to include smuggled agricultural goods worth less than P10 million, among offenses to be punished with life imprisonment, and to impose fines five times the value of the contraband.
DA Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said Republic Act 12022, or the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act, has helped the government fight smuggling, but the coverage of its stiff penalties should be expanded to strengthen the deterrent effect of law enforcement.
Tiu Laurel, in a statement on Monday, said the law raised penalties for smuggling but also increased the threshold value of the smuggled goods to at least P10 million for a smuggling case to qualify as economic sabotage. This has made curbing and prosecuting agricultural smuggling in general more difficult, the DA chief said.
RA 12022 imposes life imprisonment and a fine of five times the value of the smuggled agricultural and fishery products, but the government can only prosecute the smugglers for economic sabotage under RA 12022 if the smuggled shipment is worth at least P10 million. The law provides that the value will be computed using the daily price index at the time the crime is committed.
Aside from agricultural produce worth at least P10 million, only smuggled sugar, corn, pork, poultry, garlic, onions, carrots, fish, and cruciferous vegetables worth at least P1 million per shipment are covered by the stiff penalties of RA 12022. The DA now wants all agricultural and fishery products worth less than P10 million to be penalized by RA 12022.
Tiu Laurel said the DA has been able to seize smuggled agricultural products worth billions of pesos in the past one and a half years. However, he urged Congress to amend RA 12022 and grant the DA direct enforcement authority, in addition to expanding the coverage of economic sabotage to include illegal shipments worth less than P10 million.
“The law is a step in the right direction, but without enforcement powers, our hands are tied. We cannot fully protect our farmers and fisherfolk,” the DA secretary said.
Tiu Laurel called for stronger coordination between the Bureau of Customs and the Food and Drug Administration, as well as the establishment of a permanent secretariat mandated by law, to be led by the DA, to combat agricultural smuggling.
The DA said that from January 2024 to July 2025, the agency’s Inspectorate and Enforcement division conducted 182 anti-smuggling operations and seized P3.78 billion worth of smuggled agricultural and fishery goods.
Tiu Laurel added that in 2024 alone, P2.8 billion worth of smuggled products were seized.
He, however, said smugglers have remained active with 111 seizures so far in 2025, yielding P953 million worth of smuggled goods.
“We’ve blacklisted 20 importers under my watch, 13 of whom were operating without licenses,” he expressed.
“They are so shameless. A crocodile is even better, as it stops when it’s full,” he said in Filipino.
An onion importer is currently detained at the Manila City Jail for multiple smuggling cases filed in courts in Manila and Olongapo City, with additional legal actions underway as the DA builds its evidence base, the DA stated.
