The government organized a big PR event to demonstrate to the public its determination to weed out smuggling in the country. Three wrecking machines destroyed smuggled luxury cars at the Subic Bay Freeport. The idea was to teach the car smugglers an expensive lesson.
But we at the Fair Trade Alliance (FairTrade) would like to ask: After the destruction of the smuggled vehicles, what now? Has smuggling stopped? Have the smugglers disappeared?
If the idea was to stop smuggling, the government should have fastened the car smugglers inside those cars before proceeding with the destruction. Of course, the smugglers are worse than the Abu Sayyaf — for they kill not just dozens but virtually millions of Filipinos who are unable to find jobs due to the collapse of local industry and agriculture as a result of widespread and still unchecked smuggling. In addition, these smugglers deprive the government annually of at least P175 billion, not P50 billion, in forgone revenues.
The PR exercise was dramatic but meaningless — because it was faceless. As if the vehicles entered the Philippines without any human being touching them. For the government¹s anti-smuggling campaign to gain credibility, the campaign should reveal the names of the big-time smugglers and coddlers in the country. These smugglers and coddlers should be put behind bars.
Without a name-and-shame campaign, the car destruction might end up as a rehash of what happened in Divisoria in 2006 — the government raided and closed 168 Mall for being the country¹s biggest outlet for smuggled goods. Weeks after, the mall reopened; it has since been operating without any respite.
The government should go after the smugglers themselves, not only after the smuggled goods.
FairTrade would like to reiterate these other proposals to curb smuggling:
1. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo should certify as urgent the anti-smuggling bill. In the 13th Congress, a similar bill passed the House but got stalled in the office of a pro-administration senator.
2. Congress should amend the Transaction Valuation Law and institute a system of correcting and updating import prices by adopting the risk valuation methods and customs procedures adopted by China, India, the United States, the European Union and other developed countries.
3. The government should:
€ Limit the customs-bonded warehouses (CBWs) to a number that can be effectively monitored and regularly audited (in 2003, only 70 CBWs were audited out of almost 1,000 operating CBWs).
€ Overhaul the ineffective anti-smuggling control mechanisms in place at Subic, Clark and other economic and special zones.
€ Penalize retailers and wholesalers of smuggled items.
The point is, an effective anti-smuggling campaign requires a bolder and more sustained effort from the executive and legislative branches.
ANGELITO R. MENDOZA, convener, Fair Trade Alliance (FairTrade)
