MANILA – The Senate Committee of the Whole on Thursday adopted a resolution urging President Rodrigo R. Duterte to withdraw Executive Order 128, which provides for the temporary modification of the rates of the import duty for fresh, chilled, or frozen meat of swine, and to recall the recommendation to increase the Minimum Access Volume (MAV) of pork.
The committee asserted that "the power to fix tariff rates and import quotas fall within the realm of the power of taxation, a power which is within the sole province of the legislature under the Constitution."
"Under our system of laws, the setting of the MAV and the power to set the tariff rates are the functions of Congress. The exercise of the President of the power to increase the MAV and to lower the tariff are delegated authorities of Congress, which may be withdrawn or terminated by Congress through a joint resolution," Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon, author of the resolution, said in a news release.
Drilon said the two policies under EO 128 “can potentially spell the demise of our local hog industry, most of them belong to what we call backyard hog raisers.”
The bipartisan resolution was co-authored by Senate President Vicente Sotto, Senate President Pro-Tempore Ralph Recto, Majority Leader Miguel Zubiri, and senators Sonny Angara, Nancy Binay, Pia Cayetano, Leila de Lima, Risa Hontiveros, Lito Lapid, Panfilo Lacson, Imee Marcos, Manny Pacquiao, Francis Pangilinan, Grace Poe, Richard Gordon, Ramon Revilla Jr., Joel Villanueva, and Cynthia Villar.
On April 7, Duterte issued EO 128 reducing the in-quota tariff rate from 30 percent to 5 percent for the first three months and 10 percent for the fourth to 12th month and reducing the out-quota tariff rate from 40 percent to 15 percent for the first three months, and 20 percent for the fourth to 12th month.
On March 26, when Congress was no longer in session, Duterte also sent Congress a letter to convey his proposal to increase the MAV to 350,000 metric tons (MT) from 54,210 MT.
The Senate, however, believed that the proposal to set the MAV from the current 54,210 MT to 350,000 MT for 2021 could not take into effect because the recommendation was sent to and received by the Senate when it was no longer in session.
"Section 6 of the Agricultural Tariffication Act (Republic Act 8178), which provides that the President's recommendation to revise, modify or adjust the MAV in case of shortages or abnormal price increases in agricultural products is deemed approved if Congress fails to act after fifteen (15) days from receipt is not applicable in this case because the President's recommendation was sent to and received by the Senate when it was no longer in session and thus cannot act on the recommendation," it said.
The resolution also hit the Department of Agriculture for its failure to satisfactorily establish through accurate and reliable data that the country will have 388,790 MT of deficit in the supply of pork for the year, which necessitates the increase in MAV.
The resolution stated that based on the testimonies of the resource persons during the first hearing of the committee, there is reasonable basis to conclude that the new set of tariff rates and the huge increase in the MAV can cause the demise of the local hog industry and cost the government billions in foregone revenue.
It was reported in the media that the foregone revenue could reach up to PHP11 billion. (PR)
