The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Rose de la Cruz
For the longest time it has been common knowledge that smuggling has been thriving because Chinese suppliers have been paying government officials to turn a blind eye on their operations. Through the years, the operations have evolved from clandestine to outright open smuggling.
It was not surprising that in the recent hearing at the Senate by Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan, chair of the committee on agriculture, food and agrarian reform, he blurted out a list of all Chinese operators, who have openly used our piers for their smuggling of fruits, vegetables, meat and even fish.
Most had overlapping operations, or it might seem that there are just a handful of operators who used dummies to conceal the extent of their illicit market activities.
And of course they are in cahoots with Bureau of Customs officials, the Department of Agriculture (including Bureaus of Plant and Animal Industries and the National Meat Inspection Commission, which tacitly allows the smuggled goods to find their way to the wet markets and supermarkets) and perhaps even the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
Pangilinan said confiscating the smuggled items would only demonstrate a “semblance of law enforcement but bigtime smugglers operate freely.”
His verdict was more sweeping: “government officials and employees, and local businessmen connive to bring in millions worth of misdeclared agricultural goods in the country, of course for a hefty fee.”
Pangilinan, a dedicated farming advocate, has been leading investigations into smuggling and prices of food commodities, such as imported rice and fish.
Officials and employees from the BoC, National Bureau of Investigation, the Philippine National Police, DA, Department of Justice, and Bureau of Immigration “allow these Chinese smugglers and their local partners to operate freely,” he said.
“Slowly the rotten system is being exposed, where there are dummy consignees and insiders colluding with officials from BoC and from the DA,” Pangilinan said.
The government had seized containers upon containers of misdeclared goods coming from China. The products smuggled in and eventually seized by the government were white and red onions and frozen mackerel, which Pangilinan suspect the fishes even come from the West Philippine Sea and are being sold back to us. “Ginigisa tayo sa sariling mantika.”
Pangilinan said these seizures were only done “to show a semblance of law enforcement while ensuring that no big-time smuggler is prosecuted for the non-bailable offense of economic sabotage.”
Smuggling is now categorized as “economic sabotage” under the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Act, which President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed in September 2024.
Pangilinan reported the following Chinese exporters that dump their smuggled “misdeclared goods” in our piers: Hangzhou Yina Import and Export Co, Hangzhou Zaiqi Import and Export Co, Hangzhou Chengxi Import and Export, Hangzhou Dingyue Technology Co Ltd, Shenzhen Deyangjia Industrial and Guangzhou Yanyuxin Trade Co. Ltd
Last July, DA Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said the department intends to conduct risk assessment of shipments coming from China.
That same day the Bureau of Customs seized containers of smuggled onions and frozen mackerel from China declared as mantou, egg noodles, and kimchi.
Laurel said last September that the DA had led 182 anti-smuggling operations between January 2024 and July 2025, resulting in the seizure of P3.78 billion worth of illegal agricultural and fishery goods.
The DA has no enforcement power, nonetheless it had blacklisted several agricultural importers. Misdeclaring agricultural products as food products help exporters and consignees evade more stringent regulations.
For their refusal to cooperate with Senate probers on the multimillion-peso farm smuggling issue, more individuals were cited in contempt at Monday’s public hearing by the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food, and Agrarian Reform.
Pangilinan cited in contempt individuals allegedly linked to the illegal entry of smuggled frozen mackerel in the country after they had failed to respond to the questions raised during the hearing.
Those cited in contempt and set to remain in the Senate’s detention facility include Erwin Pascual of EPCB Consumer Goods Trading, Bureau of Customs-Port of Subic Deputy Collector for Assessment Andrew Malcolm Calixihan, and BOC-Port of Subic Acting Customs Operations Officer Mary Anabelle Gubaton.
The senator pointed out inconsistencies in Gubaton’s statements about the release of misdeclared agricultural shipments from the Port of Subic, despite the absence of essential documentation.
He also questioned Gubaton’s claim of not knowing a certain “Mr. Chuggs,” who was allegedly the “dispatcher” responsible for instructing three truck drivers to transport the smuggled frozen mackerel out of the Port of Subic.
Similarly, Calixihan denied knowing a certain “Mr. Chuggs,” prompting Pangilinan to assert that he had misled the Committee due to discrepancies in his testimony.
“There is a difference between not being able to explain it and saying, giving us testimony that is untruthful, and therefore, we will move to cite you in contempt of this Committee, Mr. Calixihan. Your explanation is unacceptable and does not satisfy this Committee,” he added.
Also cited in contempt was Pascual for claiming ignorance about broker Ellaine Joy Gedaria, who he had identified in the affidavit as the declarant for the 14 containers listed in the annexes of his affidavit.
Pascual also listed his nephew as the owner of EPCB, even though he later admitted to being the true owner himself.
Pangilinan earlier allowed Brenda de Sagun of Berches Consumer Goods Trading temporary liberty and ordered the Senate Sergeant-at-Arms to accompany her as she would look for a “Mr. Vicente.”