Duterte okays task force vs pork hoarders, profiteers

BY RAYMUND ANTONIO

President Duterte has approved the creation of a sub-task force group on economic intelligence to go after smugglers, profiteers, and hoarders of agricultural products as prices of pork, among others, continue to balloon, Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles said Thursday.

“If there are groups or businessmen taking advantage of this pandemic to profit from the people, we are not going to let that pass,” Nograles said in his report about the policy directives of the President.

The group will be led by the Department of Agriculture (DA) and Department of Trade and Industry (DTI). Its members are the Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Philippine National Police (PNP), Bureau of Customs (BOC), Philippine Competition Commission, National Security Council, and the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency.

During their Cabinet meeting Wednesday night, Nograles said that Agriculture Secretary William Dar apprised the President “on the status of the country’s pork supplies and prices.” He also submitted a list of recommendations “to address the issues and concerns pertaining to pork.”

One of these recommendations is to review the minimum access volume (MAV), which refers to “the volume of quantity of a specific agricultural commodity that would be imported with a lower tariff.” This is a commitment by the Philippines to the World Trade Organization (WTO) to facilitate trade between nations.

The MAV sets the limit to the amount of agricultural commodities that the Philippines can import at a customs duty lower than the out-quota customs duty.

“The DA has recommended studying the MAV must be expanded enough to cover the projected shortfall for the year,” Nograles said, referring to the possible importation of pork products which local hog raisers have already frowned upon.

“It passes through a council and that council will make the decisions and the recommendations to the President. There are indicative numbers, but those are not final yet. But I am not at liberty to state the numbers (MAV expansion) but again, it will go through a process then it will reach the President.”

Nograles clarified the importation of pork products will be a “temporary measure for us to address the current supply deficit.”

The government’s long-term focus is “to help our small producers, our farmers, hog raisers,” he stressed. (Raymund Antonio)