Villar C: CAV Sponsorship Speech on Onion (Committee Report No. 25)
March 14, 2023
CAV Sponsorship Speech on Onion (Committee Report No. 25)
March 14, 2023, Senate Plenary Hall
Good afternoon, Mr. President, my esteemed colleagues.
It could be recalled that in October 2022, the market price of onions started to increase uncontrollably and later on skyrocketed to P750 per kilo during the Christmas Season, making Philippine Onions the world's most expensive. Senator Imee R. Marcos timely filed Senate Resolution No. 350 and the Committee on Agriculture, Food and Agrarian Reform readily launched an inquiry, in aid of legislation, on the soaring market prices of local onions on January 16, 2023.
FARMGATE PRICE OF ONIONS
It was revealed during the hearing that the onions being sold in the market at 700 to 750 pesos per kilo were bought from the farmers of Occidental Mindoro at a shocking price of 8 to 15 pesos per kilo during the harvest season in April 2022.
While the farmers from Pangasinan and Nueva Eciia said that the farmgate price in their provinces in December 2022 was 200 to 250 pesos.
| Province | Farmgate Price |
| Occidental Mindoro | P8 - P15 (April 2022) |
| Pangasinan | P200 - P250 (December 2022) |
| Nueva Ecija | P200 - P250 (December 2022) |
The farmers of Occidental Mindoro said that the traders in Occidental Mindoro bought onions from farmers for only 8 to 15 pesos. Ang masakit dito, Mr. President, ang binili sa kanila ng otso hanggang kinse pesos ay inimbak ng mga traders sa cold storage, at saka inilabas nung nagkaroon na ng shortage at mataas na ang presyo.
Kung maaalala nyo, Mr. President, noong March to April 2022, harvest season, nabalitaan natin na nabubulok nalang sa kalsada ang mga sibuyas dahil sa sobrang baba ng presyo sa farmgate. Pagdating ng December, biglang ang presyo ay 750 pesos na.
The farmers of San Jose, Occidental Mindoro have been cultivating 3,285 hectares of onion farms, with production cost at P200,000 to P300,000 per hectare, and minimum yield of 12 MT per hectare. For the province of Occidental Mindoro, the area planted with onions can be extended up to 60,000 hectares, if the conditions are favorable to cultivation, and the volume of produce can supply the entire country's needs.
The profiteering and hoarding in the onion industry have run rampant. Nothing earned from their produce, the farmers bewail their twist of faith, they have now become consumers as well, buying their own produce at very exorbitant prices.
According to the DA-Price Monitoring Office, from July to August 2022, the price of local red onion jumped from 90 to 140 pesos; and by October, to 200 pesos. The price of Onions in Metro Manila in December 2022 ranged from 600 to P700 pesos.
Mr. President, this should never happen again during the holiday season this year, and the coming years. This should never happen again.
According to recent news reports, however, the Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (SINAG) said that as of 2nd week of March 2023, the farmgate price of onion in Nueva Ecija ranges from 55 to 60 pesos per kilo, while more or less 60 pesos per kilo for white onion. But it is being sold in the market for 90 to 150 pesos, that is 2 to 3 times the farmgate price. If this situation continues, this will be the exact same scenario that occurred last year.
Due to price manipulation, farmers suffered economic loss. Now, farmers are afraid to produce because they might not be able to get back their investments. With all the issues on smuggling, hoarding, profiteering and the cartel of agricultural products, it is baffling that no one is prosecuted.
COLD STORAGE
Meanwhile, the budget allocated for cold storage facilities in Fiscal Year 2023 is PhP 240 million, and the cost of one cold storage facility is PhP 40 million.
For this year, a total of six cold storage facilities will be built in Region I, Region II, Region III and Region IV-B.
Traders (Profiteers) and importers alike, make use of the cold storage system to maintain their stranglehold over the onion farmers and the domestic market. Local and imported onions are kept in storage and are released and dumped into the domestic market during local harvest time to manipulate the price.
IMPORTATION
During the committee investigation, we gathered the data on the country's annual onion consumption which is 250,000 to 270,000 metric tons (MT) of red and yellow onions. The top three (3) Onion producing Regions are: Region I with 54,000 MT; Region III with 140,000 MT; and Region IV-B with 128,000 MT.
| Province | Production (2022) |
| Region I | 54,000 MT |
| Region III | 140,000 MT |
| Region IV-B | 128,000 MT |
For 2022, the Philippine Statistics Authority or PSA stated that local production was 238,561.65 MT, against total demand of 270,410.00 MT, and even with DA's importation data of 29,707.52 MT, for a total supply of 268,269.17 MT, there was still a shortage of 2,140.83 MT, which could have been addressed by the 2021 surplus of 53,202.33 MT.
On the other hand, the DA reported in its presentation that the total demand for onions in 2022 was 317,400.99 MT, while supply was 313,541.60 MT, for a shortage of 3,859.39 MT for the same year. It can be noted that there are differences in the figures reported by the PSA and DA.
The investigation was presented with conflicting data, nothing definitive and nothing authoritative, not even from the PSA. This is not only unique to the Onion Industry but characteristic of the Agricultural sector, which has paved the way for the unbridled importation of agricultural products, creating havoc on the agricultural sector.
The absence of official data has allowed the free-wheeling extrapolation of figures, but not for the purpose of presenting the true picture of the agricultural sector but to justify the desired volume of importation and to intellectually provide basis for the overall discredited policy of liberalized importation of agricultural products.
The cartels use importation to lower the price of onion, especially during harvest season, thereby allowing traders to buy local onion at a lower price. The supply will be hoarded and stocked up in the cold storage, and in the meantime suspending their import activities so that the price would go up. A clear scenario of price manipulation.
My heart goes to the farmers who lost all their hard earned money and their days of labor because of the harabas or army worms that infested their onion farms in Pangasinan. Mr. President, ngayon palang sana sila makakabangon muli sa pagkalugi, ngunit nagbabadya nanaman ang pangamba dulot ng importasyon ng sibuyas ngayong anihan.
RECENT NEWS ON SMUGGLING OF ONIONS
According to news reports on smuggling, on December 23, 2022, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) intercepted 17 million pesos worth of smuggled white onions hidden in three containers declared as having clothing items at the Manila International Container Port (or MICP).
From December 27 to 29, 2022, during a series of law enforcement operations, the BOC seized over P139 million worth of undeclared agricultural products that arrived between November 27 and December 3 at the MICP.
In February of this year, it was reported that smuggled onions and garlic with an estimated market value of P135 million were seized in warehouses in Manila and Malabon.
Early this month, the BOC seized smuggled onions and agricultural products amounting to 101 Million pesos at the MICP.
And just this week, Mr. President, the BOC seized 77 Million pesos worth, or 18 containers of smuggled red and yellow onions at the MICP. According to the bills of lading of these containers, it contains pizza dough and fish balls.
Sa Manila Port palang po ito. Paano pa kaya sa ibang ports? Talagang ang lalakas ng loob ng mga smugglers na ito, Mr. President.
RECOMMENDATIONS
In response to the issues that hounded the Department of Agriculture, the Committee came up with recommendations in Committee Report No. 25, the most notable of which are the following:
Republic Act No. 10845 or the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act of 2016 should be amended to include profiteering, hoarding and smuggling in its list of crimes involving economic sabotage. The amendment should be explicit and express and will leave no room for the implementers to interpret the intent and spirit of the law otherwise through IRRs.
An "Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Task Force" should be created and established to serve and protect the entire agricultural sector, not only the Onion Industry.
And to give the Task Force the muscle to bring these smugglers, profiteers, and hoarders to justice, a Special Court was proposed to be created to specifically try and hear economic sabotage cases with a Special Team of Prosecutors to assist the Task Force in the expeditious prosecution.
This will ensure preferential attention to cases of economic sabotage so that profiteers, hoarders and smugglers will be brought to justice and speedy trial will be rendered accordingly.
As for importation, if the same is necessary, approval of importation permits must be logically scheduled so as not to impede and completely compete with local production and harvest. The import volume must be correctly established and such must be only for purposes of providing the needed supply in the market. Ayaw na po nating makitang nagtatapon ng sibuyas ang mga farmers natin dahil sa sobrang baba ng presyo dulot ng maling timing ng importasyon.
In response to the demand expressed during the hearing, I promptly submitted Senate Bill No. 1962 Amending Republic Act No. 10845 or the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act of 2016 and Senate Bill No. 1963 or the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Courts Act of 2023, which are now pending in the Committee on Agriculture, Food and Agrarian Reform and the Committee on Justice, respectively.
Mr. President, it is high-time that we have an Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Task Force and Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Court.
With these in place, we will have a watchdog in the agricultural sector to ensure that whoever manipulates the price of agricultural commodities to the detriment of the small farmers and consumers, will be brought to justice accordingly. Gone are the days when we are always at the mercy of these cartels.
Thank you, Mr. President.
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