00:00 Following the President's announcement against smuggling in his area,
00:04 the Justice Department is investigating a case involving a smuggler,
00:08 and some government officials,
00:11 such as Salima Refran and Bernardo Trellis.
00:14 The days of smugglers and hoarders are over.
00:23 The President's announcement was only a few days ago,
00:27 but the Department of Agriculture is investigating a case.
00:30 The area has four warehouses and code storage facilities
00:33 that have smuggled agricultural products before yesterday.
00:37 It's a big volume within the zone.
00:40 There's sugar, onions, meat, everything.
00:44 We opened it and we found out that it was smuggled.
00:47 There's a case already?
00:49 Yes, there's a case already.
00:51 Customs is in the process of investigating a case
00:55 involving the Anti-Smuggling Act, which is considered economic sabotage
00:57 and a non-billable offense.
00:59 The Sugar Regulatory Administration has also
01:02 inspected the sugar warehouses regularly
01:05 to ensure that there are no smuggled products in the families.
01:09 The farmer loses again because the smuggled products are cheaper.
01:13 The government also loses because there are no taxes and duties.
01:16 According to the Department of Agriculture,
01:18 President Bongbong Marcos has ordered the creation of an Anti-Smuggling Task Force
01:24 to track smugglers and hoarders.
01:26 But this will require more manpower.
01:29 That's why the Justice Department has also divided the task force
01:34 into two parts.
01:36 One is now called the Onion and Garlic Smuggling Intelligence.
01:40 Aside from the smuggling, hoarding, and price manipulation,
01:44 there are several names of government officials
01:48 who are being validated by the task force.
01:51 From various agencies that have experience in entering
01:55 and giving permits because they seem to have experience.
02:01 Some of them are also being inspected by the Bureau of Customs,
02:04 Bureau of Plant Industry, and other agencies
02:07 involved in the process of importing agricultural products.
02:11 We're talking about the supply of commodities
02:15 to a population of 100 million people.
02:19 So this runs in the billions.
02:21 The former government officials are also not afraid of investigation and prosecution.
02:27 We have the first report of this since 2008.
02:32 For GMA Integrated News, I'm Nema Refran.
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