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Also, the matters contained in the following were written in accordance with the law, rules, and jurisprudence prevailing at the time of writing and posting, and do not include any future developments on the subject matter under discussion.
AT A GLANCE:
Republic Act No. 12022 or the Anti-Agricultural Sabotage Act classified agricultural smuggling, hoarding, profiteering, and engaging in cartel as economic sabotage. The law established new measures against the rampant smuggling of agricultural and fishery products.
Republic Act No. 12022 also known as the Anti-Agricultural Sabotage Act was enacted to prevent smuggling of agricultural and fishery products, which negatively affects supply, production, and price stability of agricultural products and threatens food security. The law also intends to eliminate hoarding, profiteering, and cartel that unduly restrain supply and manipulate prices which deprive the State of much needed taxes and revenues for economic development.
The law defines economic sabotage in agriculture as any act or activity that disrupts the economy by creating artificial shortage, promoting excessive importation, manipulating prices and supply, evading payment or underpaying tariffs and customs duties, threatening local production and food security, gaining excessive or exorbitant profits by exploiting situations, creating scarcity, and entering into agreements that defeat fair competition to the prejudice of the public.
The law covered the following agricultural and fishery products: rice, corn, beef and other ruminants, pork, poultry, garlic, onion, carrots, other vegetables, fruits, fish, salt, and other aquatic products in their raw state or which have undergone the simple process of preparation or preservation for the market within the primary and post-harvest stages of the food supply chain, palm oil, palm olein, raw and refined sugar, and tobacco.
Agricultural Smuggling as Economic Sabotage
Smuggling is the fraudulent act of importing or bringing of assisting and fishery products into the country, or the act of assisting in receiving, concealing, buying, selling, disposing, storing, or transporting such products, with full knowledge that the same have been fraudulently imported.
The crime of agricultural smuggling as economic sabotage is committed when the value of each or of the combination of agricultural and fishery products smuggled by a person is at least Ten million pesos (P10,000,000.00) computed using the DPI at the time the crime was committed.
Agricultural smuggling shall be committed through any of the following acts:
(a) Importing or bringing agricultural and fishery products into the Philippines without the required import clearance from regulatory agencies;
(b) Use of import clearance by persons other than those specifically named in the permit;
(c) Use of fake, false, fictitious or fraudulent import clearance, shipping documents, or any other transport documentation;
(d) Selling, lending, leasing, assigning, consenting to, or allowing the use by other persons of the import clearance in the name of corporations, nongovernment organizations, associations, cooperatives, partnerships, or single proprietorships;
(e) Misclassification, underevaluation, or misdeclaration upon the filing of import entry declaration or transport documentation with the Bureau of Customs (BOC) in order to evade the payment of correct taxes and duties due the government;
(f) Organizing or using dummy corporations, nongovernment organizations, associations, cooperatives, partnerships, or single proprietorships for the purpose of acquiring import clearance;
(g) Knowingly transporting or storing smuggled agricultural and fishery products;
(h) Acting as a broker of the importer;
(i) Allowing the use of a private port, fish port, fish landing site, resort, and/or airport to perpetrate economic sabotage;
(j) Distributing, selling, or dealing in any other manner with any agricultural and fishery products which a person knows or should have known to have been imported through any of the above means, regardless of the value. Selling of tobacco products below the DPI is likewise prohibited; or
(k) Having been convicted of acts of smuggling under relevant provisions of the CMTA on two (2) separate instances, commits a third violation, which shall now be covered by this Act, regardless of the value of the product.
Agricultural Hoarding as Economic Sabotage
Agricultural boarding as economic sabotage is committed by a person or combination of persons by having stocks of agricultural and fishery products in excess of thirty percent (30%) of their normal inventory level ten (10) days after the declaration of an abnormal situation by the Council or after the declaration of an emergency or state of calamity by competent authority.
Agricultural Profiteering as Economic Sabotage
Agricultural profiteering as economic sabotage is the sale or offer for sale of agricultural and fishery products at a price at least ten percent (10%) in excess of the DPI, at the time of the declaration of an abnormal situation by the Council, or emergency or state of calamity by competent authority.
Profiteering shall not apply to retailers who purchase goods from wholesalers, importers, or producers, and directly sell in smaller quantities to the general public, usually in wet markets, talipapa, and cooperative stores with capitalization not exceeding Two hundred thousand pesos (P200,000.00), and farmers and fisherfolk selling their own harvest, produce, or catch.
Engaging in Cartel as Economic Sabotage
There shall be prima facie evidence of engagement in cartel as economic sabotage when two (2) or more persons competing for the same market and dealing in the same agricultural and fishery products agree to perform uniform, simultaneous, or complementary acts among themselves and actually perform such acts designed to artificially and unreasonably increase or manipulate the supply or prices of such projects, thereby stifling competition, as defined as in Section 14 of Republic Act No. 10667 or the “Philippine Competition Act”, to the detriment of consumers, or the decrease in farmgate prices to the detriment of the agricultural and fishery producers:
Provided, That an agreement herein refers to any type or form of contract, arrangement, understanding, collective recommendation, or concerned action, whether formal or informal, explicit or tacit, written or oral:
Provided, further, That any person or persons include unincorporated entity or entities, domestic or foreign, including those owned or controlled by the government, engaged directly or indirectly in any economic activity.
Financial Agricultural Economic Sabotage Crimes
Any person who directly or indirectly, willfully and without lawful excuse, possesses, provides, collects, uses, or makes available property, funds, financial, or other related services, or funds the creation of dummy or fictitious entities, with willful intention that they be used, in full or in part, to carry out or facilitate the commission of any of the crimes of agricultural economic sabotage shall suffer the penalty provided under Section 14(b) of the Anti-Agricultural Sabotage Act.
Use of Government Storage Facilities
Cold storage, warehouses, and similar facilities intended for agricultural and fishery products granted by the government to cooperatives and associations shall exclusively be used by their farmers and fisherfolk members. Renting out to or allowing the use in any way by non-members, such as traders and other private businesses, is prohibited and will cause the revocation of the grant. The government shall then immediately repossess the storage facility, and the erring cooperatives and associations shall be perpetually disqualified from being granted storage facilities by the government.
Violations of the Enforcement Group
It shall be a crime for an employee of a member of the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Enforcement Group to commit any of the following acts:
(a) Extortion or willful oppression under color of law;
(b) Knowingly demanding documents or records that are irrelevant to the case or unjustifiably extending the constructive custody of the goods;
(c) Failing to report knowledge or information to their superior officer about the commission of an act or acts punishable under this Act;
(d) Accepting or attempting to collect, directly or indirectly, any sum of money or other thing of value for the compromise adjustment or settlement of any charge or complaint for any violation of this Act; and
(e) Unlawfully disclosing confidential information gained during any investigation or audit, or suing such information for personal gain or to the detriment of the government or third parties.
Section 14 of the law prescribes the penalties for violation of the Anti-Agricultural Sabotage Act.
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Alburo Alburo and Associates Law Offices specializes in business law and labor law consulting. For inquiries regarding legal services, you may reach us at info@alburolaw.com, or dial us at (02)7745-4391/ 0917-5772207/ 09778050020.
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