Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. has instructed the Sugar Regulatory Administration to blacklist two registered sugar traders and importers for the illegal entry into the country of P9 million worth of refined sugar.
Ordered blacklisted are Lapaz Multi-purpose Cooperative and Yabai OPC, a Department of Agriculture (DA) statement said on Friday, May 30.
Laurel, Bureau of Customs Commissioner Bienvenido Rubio and Sugar Regulatory Administration chief Pablo Luis Azcona inspected the smuggled sugar from Thailand at the Port of Manila on Thursday, May 29.
“We cannot let these illicit trading practices undermine the agriculture sector and hurt our farmers, particularly those in the sugar industry,” Laurel said.
Seized were four container vans loaded with 2,000 50-kilo bags of refined sugar, with an estimated retail value of P9 million, the DA said.
One shipment, which arrived on April 29 at the Port of Manila from the port of Thailand, involved two container vans of refined sugar imported by Roxas City-based Lapaz Multi-purpose Cooperative (LMC) without any permit or import allocation from the SRA, the DA added.
LMC also does not possess a clearance to release imported sugar, it said.
The two other container vans, which arrived in January from Vietnam, also contained refined sugar but was declared as sweetener mix, which has a lower tariff.
If the cargo was allowed through customs, the government would have been deprived of P1.8 million in import tax, the DA said.
The cargo has been declared abandoned by the consignee on record, Yabai OPC, it said.
“The closer coordination among government agencies to clamp down on smuggling as well as the implementation of the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Law which doesn’t allow bail should put fear on these illicit traders,” Laurel said.*