Old, current execs won’t be spared in DOJ agri smuggling investigation

By Rey Requejo, Charles Dantes, Macon Ramos-Araneta,

and Maricel Cruz third-level officers of the Philippine National Police upon the recommendation of the National Police Commission Ad Hoc Advisory Group that handled the matter. PNP Chief Benjamin Acorda Jr. said the 18 were from a group of 953 officers who had submitted courtesy resignations and undergone a thorough investigation.

FORMER and incumbent public officials will not be spared from the Department of Justice’s investigation into the smuggling of agricultural products, Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said Tuesday.

“We are looking at many names from different government agencies involved in letting goods into the country and giving permissions for the entry of commodities,” Remulla said in a media briefing.

These agencies are the Bureau of Customs (BOC), Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI), different offices of the Department of Agriculture (DA), and others involved in the entry of agricultural commodities, he said.

Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin on Tuesday also expounded on two issues highlighted in the President’s SONA – running after hoarders and smugglers of agricultural produce.

He said cases will soon be filed with the establishment of the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Task Force led by the DOJ.

Seeks Synergies

“Egay” is forecast to move westnorthwestward in the next 24 hours before turning generally northwestward and crossing the Luzon Strait, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Administration Services Administration (PAGASA) said.

In its 8 p.m. bulletin last night, the bureau said the center of the eye of “Egay” was estimated at 135 kilometers east of Aparri, Cagayan. These and other areas in Northern Luzon can expect heavy rainfall of more than 200 millimeters until this afternoon.

Speaker: 7 of 17 priority bills already OK’d

By Maricel V. Cruz

THE House of Representatives has already approved on third and final reading seven of the 17 priority measures that President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. asked Congress to pass in his second State of the Nation Address (SONA), Speaker Martin G. Romualdez said Tuesday. Romualdez, leader of 312-member House of Representatives, expressed confidence that the chamber would wrap up the final approval of the remaining 10 SONA priority measures before the year ends— four before the congressional recess in October and the other six in December.