Senate aspirant Teddy Baguilat Jr. has joined the League of Associations at the La Trinidad Vegetable Trading Area Inc. in condemning the unabated smuggling of vegetables, especially carrots from China.
“Vegetable smuggling poses a serious threat to the livelihood of the farmers in Benguet,” Baguilat remarked. Baguilat noted that Benguet farmers have yet to recover from the devastation to their income caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and now they have to deal with losses caused by smuggled vegetables.
Benguet farmers are the main suppliers of salad vegetables to major markets like Metro Manila and Cebu, but smuggled vegetables have flooded these markets.
Baguilat is acutely aware of the plight of the farmers of the Cordilleras. This is one of the motivating factors behind his decision at the height of the pandemic in 2020 to help bring Cordillera farmers’ produce to Metro Manila through a social enterprise.
Baguilat thus joined the Benguet group of vegetable traders in appealing to the government to immediately stop the illegal entry of agricultural products which are taking away precious income from the farmers.
“When there are smuggled goods like vegetables from China, there are people who earn from corruption. They enrich themselves at the expense of our farmers,” Baguilat said.
Baguilat is vying for a seat in the Senate under the ticket of Vice President Leni Robredo and Sen. Kiko Pangilinan. He aims to bring to the Senate the indigenous peoples’ mindset that nurtures the
environment, culture, human rights as well as agriculture.
Baguilat stressed that a Robredo government will prioritize stopping the smuggling of vegetables.
About 58,000 households in Benguet, Ifugao and Mt. Province depend on farming. Together they produce about 80 percent of the country’s highland vegetables such as cabbage, lettuce, broccoli and carrots.