Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage measure now up for Marcos' signature

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate on Tuesday ratified the bicameral report on the proposed Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act, and the measure now only awaits the signature of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. 

The bill is one of Marcos' priority legislations, but conflicting provisions had to be reconciled in the bills’ versions in the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Senate had already ratified the bicameral report on the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act back in May, but a new amendment was added, according to Sen. Cynthia Villar.

During a Senate Session on Tuesday, Villar said that the Bicameral Conference’s discussion of the House and the Senate’s version of the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act (Senate Bill 2432 and House Bills 3917, 9284) was successful. 

“In Section 18 of the consolidated bill, we included the Department of Finance in the composition of the Anti-Agriculture Economic Sabotage Enforcement group,” she said. 

The senator said this should not be interpreted as the DOF being allowed to distribute tasks to agencies under it, particularly the Bureau of Customs.

The veteran senator said that the Bureau of Customs' problematic structure is why the original law had to be amended, saying that there was a connivance between the bureau's employees and smugglers in the past. 

“The problematic system wIthin the Bureau of Customs is one of the reasons RA (Republic Act) 10845 or the original Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage failed to the effective implementation," Villar said.

“I so move, Mr. President, of the ratification of the result of the Bicameral Conference in the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act,” she added.

Senate President Francis Escudero, hearing no objections, approved the ratification.   

“I hope the president will sign the bill as early as possible,” Villar said. 

One of the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act’s salient features is stiffer penalties for agricultural smuggling, long thought to be the drivers of high food prices in the country. It also adds other punishable crimes such as hoarding, profiteering, and carteling products. 

If signed by the president, it would repeal RA 10845 or the original