Consistent with the policy directive of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to bolster the government’s campaign against agricultural smuggling, the Department of Agriculture-Inspectorate and Enforcement  Office led the inspection of 58 container vans offloaded at the Port of Subic, which were placed on alert mode last January 4, 2023.

The operation conducted on March 2, 2023 in partnership with the Bureau of Customs (BOC), Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA), Philippine Coast Guard (PCG), Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR), and the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), resulted to the seizure of the said shipment.

The containers, which measure 20 feet each, were found to contain 30,160 bags of refined sugar. At P100/kilogram, the cargo with a total weight of 1,508,000 kgs, is valued at P150.8 million.

According to Assistant Secretary James Layug, who heads the DA IE office, the DA will be filing criminal cases against the shipments’ consignee—JB8 Consumer Goods Trading– for the misdeclaration and misclassification of the shipment in violation of the Republic Act No. 10611 or the Food Safety Act of 2013 and Republic Act No. 10845 or the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act of 2016. ###