SENATE deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros has filed a proposed measure seeking to hold liable government employees and officials who act as co-conspirators and accomplices of agricultural smugglers, which is punishable with life imprisonment.
Senate Bill No. 2205, which was filed last Tuesday, proposes amendments to certain provisions of RA 10845 or the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act, to criminalize the acts of government employees and officials who will get involved in agricultural smuggling.
Hontiveros said the law against agricultural smuggling has been passed in 2016 but not a single individual has been prosecuted “even if there have been reports of the seizure of smuggled products.”
“There has been no prosecution of government officials for facilitating and abetting acts of agricultural smuggling that account to large-scale economic sabotage. As a result, smuggling activities continue with impunity,” she said in the explanatory note of the proposed measure.
Hontiveros said that the “sugar fiasco that is still unfolding” showed how government officials apparently had a hand in the entry of 440,000 metric tons of sugar last February without a sugar order.
Under the proposed bill, Hontiveros said the “approval or issuance by a public employee or officer” of any license, declaration, clearance, or permit “knowing that it is manifestly unlawful, inequitable, or irregular will also be considered economic sabotage,” a crime punishable with life imprisonment.
A fine of twice the fair market value of the smuggled agricultural products, including taxes, duties, and other charges avoided plus interests will also be imposed on violators.
