30M kilos of pork may have been smuggled into Philippines in 2020 —Pangilinan

At least 30 million kilos of pork may have been smuggled to the Philippines last year, Senator Francis Pangilinan said Wednesday.

In a statement, Pangilinan, himself a former food security secretary, noted the discrepancy in the pork import figures of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and those of the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) for 2020.

He said that BOC data show that more than 225 million kilos of pork with a value of over P16 billion was imported in 2020, while the BAI, which conducts meat inspection, reported over 256 million kilos of pork imports for the same year.

“Bakit magkaiba ang data ng Customs at ng BAI? Bakit mas mababa ang sa Customs? Nasaan napunta ang mga 30 million kilos ng imported na baboy? Yan kaya ang dami ng imported na baboy na nakalusot sa Customs ng walang tax?" Pangilinan asked.

(Why are the data of the Customs and BAI different? Why are Customs’ figures lower? Where did the roughly 30 million kilos of imported pork go? Could this be the amount of imported pork that passed through Customs without tax?)

“Kailangang ipaliwanag ‘yan dahil bilyong piso na ang nawala sa mga Pilipinong magbababoy dahil sa ASF, bilyon pa ang nawala sa tax na pwede sanang gamitin para makatulong sa kanila maka-recover," he added.

(This discrepancy should be explained because Filipino hog growers have already lost billions of pesos to ASF, and now billions of pesos of taxes that could be used to help them recover are lost too.)

Pangilinan said the Senate Committee of the Whole will attempt to thresh out the issue on the continuation of its inquiry into the country's food security issue this Thursday.

He called on the BOC to watch out for possible misdeclaration or misclassification of pork shipments, as smugglers try to skirt paying tariffs with the help of some customs personnel.

“Kriminal at kasuklam-suklam ang gagawa ng ganito lalo na sa panahong hirap na hirap na ang mga Pilipino dahil sa mataas ang presyo ng mga bilihin at walang trabaho at mababa ang kita," he said.

(This is criminal and unconscionable especially in these times when Filipinos are barely ekeing out a living due to high prices of goods, loss of jobs, and lower incomes.) — BM, GMA News