Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, May 2) — Senators should push for a new Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) division to try agricultural smuggling cases instead of creating a separate court, officials and legal experts said on Tuesday.
Court administrator of the Supreme Court Raul Villanueva initially suggested that regional trial courts (RTCs) be designated for the function, but Senator Cynthia Villar said it would be ineffective.
“If the intention of Congress is to elevate the rank of the judges who would hear anti-smuggling cases, another division may be added to the CTA,” Gener Gito, Philippine Judges Association’s (PJA) vice president for administration, said during the Senate hearing on the amendment of the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act.
Danilo Cruz, president of PJA, added that doing so would be swifter and more practical.While Villanueva expressed support for the proposal, he pointed out that there may be a need to amend the law, given the limited jurisdiction of the CTA. The court currently has three divisions.Expand lang ‘yung jurisdiction nila [Just expand their jurisdiction] on special laws pertaining to violations, for example, sa smuggling,” Villanueva said.Pwede [rin] namang i-raffle lang sa apat na divisions ‘yun (cases) para hindi exclusive for one division,” he added, noting there are only nine agricultural smuggling cases pending with the SC to date.
[Translation: We just need to expand their jurisdiction to include special laws pertaining to, for example, smuggling. We can also raffle such cases among all CTA divisions instead of making them exclusive.]
According to the Department of Justice, a total of 159 cases have been filed with the agency from 2016 to February 2023. Of that number, 76 cases or 48% were dismissed for lack of probable cause. Only nine have reached the Supreme Court.Maybe we can add a specific crime, refusal to prosecute large-scale agricultural smuggling,” Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III suggested, adding that legal departments, even DOJ prosecutors, can be held liable depending on the evidence.
Economic sabotage as non-bailable crime
Under Senate Bill 1963, Villar proposed the creation of special courts in four areas: Metro Manila, Bulacan, Cebu, and Davao.
The courts aim to hear criminal cases against persons involved in agricultural smuggling.
“We are amending the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act (RA 10845) to include hoarding, price manipulation and cartels as economic sabotage and non-bailable,” Villar said. “We intend to create an Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Court to ensure the proper implementation of the law will be made.”
Under RA 10845, the amount to be declared as economic sabotage is ₱10 million for rice and ₱1 million for other agricultural products.
However, Villar said no smugglers were charged with economic sabotage.
According to the Bureau of Customs, 24 cases of large-scale agricultural smuggling have been filed in the Department of Justice (DOJ) in 2022 and 46 cases in 2023. However, all cases are still under preliminary investigation.
Villar said the only “deterrent” to smuggling would be to put those liable behind bars, even while they are still being tried for economic sabotage.
Meanwhile, the Department of Agriculture said it will look into the ₱2.87-billion budget released to the Bureau of Animal Industry this year for the establishment of first border inspection facilities for imported produce after it was questioned over the status of the project.
