NI NOEL ABUEL
Nanawagan si Anakalusugan party list Rep. Ray T. Reyes sa Office of the Ombudsman na magsagawa ng lifestyle check sa mga opisyales ng Department of Agriculture (DA) at Bureau of Customs (BoC) matapos mabunyag na may mamahaling sasakyan at ari-arian ang mga ito.
Ayon sa kongresista, base sa isinagawang pagdinig ng House Committee on Ways and Means ay natuklasan na maraming opisyales ng BoC at DA ang nagmamay-ari ng mamahaling mga sasakyan at bahay.
“The Office of the Ombudsman should move and start a lifestyle check on these people. Since time immemorial, BoC had been known for unscrupulous transactions. Employees working as early as eight months, could be seen owning luxury cars. How is that even possible?” tanong ni Reyes.
“Rising prices of agricultural commodities due to the complicity in smuggling of some in DA also indicates that huge syndicates operate within and are behind all these. We, consumers, pay the price of their corruption,” dagdag pa nito.
Aniya, sa pagdinig ng nasabing komite sa usapin ng smuggling ng agricultural products, ang presyo ng asukal at sibuyas sa ibang bansa tulad ng Pakistan, Bangladesh, at Paraguay ay malayung-malayo sa presyo nito sa bansa.
Natuklasan din umano sa pagdinig na halos P5 bilyon halaga ng buwis ang hindi nakolekta dahil sa talamak na smuggling ng agricultural products.
“Almost 5 billion pesos of revenue is lost due to the smuggling of agricultural products. It is high time that all these people are subjected to lifestyle checks, from top to bottom. No sacred cows. No holy onions. From the heads of offices, even down to the clerks and security guards,” ani Reyes.
Sinabi pa ng mambabatas, na natuklasan din sa pagdinig na nagsimula ang agricultural smuggling sa panahon ng Covid-19 pandemic base na rin sa intelligence reports na natanggap ng House Committee on Ways and Means.
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