By: Atty. Gregorio B. Austral, CPA
Agricultural smuggling as economic sabotage
The recently enacted “Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act” or Republic Act No. 12022 defines the crime of Agricultural Smuggling as Economic Sabotage.
Under this new law, smuggling is the fraudulent act of importing or bringing agricultural 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, undervaluation, 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 product 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.
The Enforcement Group, on the strength of a Letter of Authority (LOA) issued by the Council, shall have the authority to visit areas where the agricultural and fishery products are located, for the purpose of ensuring compliance with this Act and other relevant laws concerning the importation, storage, and/or sale of agricultural and fishery products. The Enforcement Group shall give due notice to the relevant persons, who may be the owner, possessor, or person exercising control over the agricultural and fishery products, to provide proof of compliance with this Act, particularly import documents and proof of payment of duties and taxes in the case of importers, and purchase receipts from suppliers in the case of business establishments other than importers, within twenty-four (24) hours, pending which, the goods shall be placed in the constructive custody of the Enforcement Group.
In the event that the relevant person fails to produce such evidence of compliance within twenty-four (24) hours, the Enforcement Group shall immediately apply for a seizure order and file the relevant case or criminal action in court. Pending the issuance or denial of the seizure order, the subject goods shall remain in constructive custody.
The mere possession or presence of agricultural and fishery products which have been the subject of smuggling referred to in this Act in any fish port, fish landing site, resort, airport, BOC-controlled port, or any warehouse, cold storage, vessel, transport conveyance, and other storage areas shall constitute prima facie evidence of agricultural smuggling as economic sabotage. (Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act, Republic Act No. 12022, [September 26, 2024])