REALIGN DA’S P50-M CONFIDENTIAL FUNDS TO ANTI-SMUGGLING BODIES — SENATORS

By Liza Soriano

TWO senators want to realign the P50-million confidential funds of the Department of Agriculture (DA) to anti-smuggling bodies to address this issue.

This was the statement of Senators Cynthia Villar and Raffy Tulfo after learning that the DA was given millions of confidential funds under the National Expenditure’s Program (NEP).

According to Agriculture Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban, P50-M will be allocated for “enforcement” and “smuggling.”

Tulfo questioned this and said that the Bureau of Customs (BOC) should be the agency to respond to smuggling.

“I-surrender ninyo na lang po at ibigay ninyo na lang po sa ibang mga agency na nangangailangan tulad ng Coast Guard. Siguro kailangan natin dahil palaging nagkakaproblema tayo sa West Philippine Sea,” Tulfo said.

Villar supported Tulfo’s statement and added that it is not within the DA’s mandate to address smuggling.

“The enforcement agency against smuggler and cartel…would be coming from the law enforcement agency, not DA,” the senator said.

(ai/mnm)