BONGABON, Nueva Ecija – The Senate committee on agriculture pressed for a the drawing of lots as a more transparent method to choose recipients of permits for onion and garlic importation as no government agency was able to give a clear cut guideline to this effect on Thursday.
This as the committee chaired and presided by Sen. Cynthia Villar conducted a hearing on the alleged unabated smuggling as well as manipulation of the bulbs that result to heavy disadvantage of farmers.
The hearing, attended by Agriculture Sec. Proceso Alcala, local government officials and industry stakeholders was held at the multi-purpose hall inside the municipal hall here.
Villar grilled the DA on the manner by which the government selects an accredited importer when importation quota appears to be bigger than the number of importers.
Each import permit, according to the Bureau of Plant and Industry (BPI) covers 50 metric tons.
It turned out that an inter-agency task force called National Onion Action Team (NOAT) hand-picks the recipient.
“Every accredited importer must have been pre-qualified so how do you award the importation permit to anyone of them?” Villar asked in the vernacular. She elicited no clear answer though prompting Alcala to propose lottery.
The senator agreed to the idea. The grilling was made amid allegations that permits to import are being sold.
Lawyer Ariel Genaro Jawid who appeared for the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) said selling of importation permit is open in the industry. “The only question is to whom these permits are being sold,” he said.
The committee also resolved to allocate 60 percent of an annual importation quota to farmers organizations and the 40 percent to private traders. This, according to Villar, is to give farmers an opportunity to recover from possible production losses.
Records from the BPI showed that there are 101 onion importer
