PMAP slams DTI Usec’s ‘anti-poor’ bias

A day after staging a lightning protest at the Turkish flour exhibit at the World Food Expo (WOFEX) 2010, the People’s Movement Against Poverty (PMAP) asked yesterday for the immediate resignation of Trade Undersecretary Zenaida C. Maglaya for "showing extreme bias against the welfare of poor Filipinos."

PMAP made the demand after Maglaya directed the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to allow the "continuing illegal dumping" of "contaminated" Turkish flour into the Philippines.

PMAP chair Ronald Lumbao said that Maglaya’s published statement that "the FDA and BOC should fix" the issues concerning the technical smuggling and the reported contamination of Turkish flour with cancer-causing mycotoxin is a "clear sell out."

Lumbao said that instead of saying that the Philippines should succumb to Turkey and the EU bloc, Maglaya should have asked the FDA to protect the health of Filipinos against toxic Turkish flour.

"Alam kaya ni Pangulong Noynoy Aquino na isinusugal ni Usec. Maglaya ang kaligtasan ng pinakamahihirap na Pilipino na ang kasalanan lang ay hindi nila alam na gawa na pala sa Turkish flour ang kanilang pandesal o pansit na kinakain,"said Lumbao.

Source: http://www.malaya.com.ph/08062010/busi11.html

‘Toxic’ Turkish flour slammed at food expo

MEMBERS of an urban-poor group on Wednesday staged a lightning rally at the start of the World Food Expo (Wofex) 2010 in Manila, denouncing the “health hazard posed by toxic Turkish flour used in the making of pan de sal and noodles, popular food for Filipinos, especially the poor.”

Bearing placards with such calls like “Pan de sal na mura, panlason sa masa!” members of the People’s Movement Against Poverty (Pmap) aired their protest at the venue of the food expo at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City.

Led by Ronald Lumbao, national chairman, and Rommel Mendoza, youth sector representative, the protesters sent a  message to Turkish Ambassador Adnan Basaga that said, “though most Filipinos are poor, we are humans, too. We deserve food, not poison from you!”

Lumbao denounced a test report by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearing Turkish flour, saying that the finding cannot be believed because of reports that a lobby group from Turkey, abetted by local importers, wined and dined government officials during the test period.

“Gusto naming kumain ng tinapay, pero mas gusto naming mabuhay! Stop the illegal dumping of toxic Turkish flour! Punish the greedy importers!” shouted the protesters.

The Pmap also said Turkish flour is grossly undervalued at customs to as low as just $100 per metric ton so its local importers can escape paying the proper duties and value-added tax.

But to Lumbao and Pmap, the issue that reaches the stomach is that Filipinos no longer know whether the pan de sal and noodles they are eating are made from Turkish flour and whether, like the nicotine in cigarettes, it will also kill them in the long run.

Lumbao pointed out that the FDA test “result” is also contradicted by a more thorough report in the Journal of Food, which cited a study by the University of Istanbul of Turkish flour being contaminated with cancer-causing mycotoxins from mold, mildew and cereal pests.

“How come the FDA gave the Turkish ambassador an advance notice on the test result? This is a fact because the ambassador even issued a press release boasting about it, a week before the FDA officially released the result to the media,” he said in Filipino.

Lumbao  averred that Turkish traders and their Filipino partners who bring in the flour seemed to have taken advantage of Wofex 2010 to show how to mix Turkish flour with other flour to mask the former’s low-nutrient and unsavory taste.

“Some local bakers say that to make pan de sal from Turkish flour, it has to be mixed with other flour as an extender to increase their profit. Now, Turkish traders had come in to teach us, of all things, how to use preservatives and flavorings to overcome the moldy taste of goods made from their toxic flour,” the protesters said.

The “dumping” of Turkish flour is also a hot issue in Indonesia, with the filing of the  complaints of violation of that country’s anti-dumping law being contemplated both by consumers and affected traders, the protesters said.

Source: http://businessmirror.com.ph/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=28458:toxic-turkish-flour-slammed-at-food-expo&catid=26:nation&Itemid=63

Protest mars Turkish flour product expo

HAVING BEEN cleared by the local food and drug administration, Turkey’s biggest flour producers and exporters are highlighting their products at the World Food Expo 2010 being held at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City.

But about 15 demonstrators led by Ronald Lumbao of the People’s Movement Against Poverty (PMAP) Wednesday staged a lightning rally and engaged security guards of the SMX complex in a brief scuffle. They wore t-shirts saying: “Pandesal na mura, panlason sa masa (cheap bread rolls, toxic to the masses) and “no to importation of toxic Turkish flour.

Earlier, local flour millers brought up the possibility that rival Turkish flour, which was being sold 25 percent cheaper than locally milled flour, was toxic. The Department of Health, however, said tests showed Turkish flour imports were safe.

“Our mills in Turkey are some of the biggest and most modern in the world. These mills produce flour in compliance with international standards on quality and safety,” said Turgay Ugtu, deputy chair of Cereals, Pulses, Oilseeds and Products Exporter Unions Sector Committee, an organization of flour producers and exporters in Turkey.

“We are assuring everyone that the wheat flour that we produce in Turkey is safe and of good quality,” he added at a press conference Wednesday.

Ugtu’s claim was supported by Binondo-based businessman Ernesto Chua Co Kiong, whose Malabon Longlife Trading Corporation is a leading importer and wholesaler of Turkish flour in the country.

Kiong said the cheaper Turkish flour has helped many bread and noodle-making enterprises thrive—and keep down the price of the Filipino pandesal, a common breakfast staple.

Source: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20100805-284989/Protest-mars-Turkish-flour-product-expo

Food or poison?

Istanbul University of Turkey has declared in the global Journal of Food that Turkish flour, which is being imported into our country, is contaminated with cancer-causing mycotoxin.

Yet our own Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has pronounced that it is safe for human consumption, endangering the health of millions of Filipino consumers of pan de sal and other bread products made of Turkish flour.

How come the FDA released in advance to the Turkish Embassy the result of its “test,” one week before informing the public through the media? Does this not suggest undue influence?

Is it true that some government officials had been “wined and dined” by a lobby group of local importers and Turkish traders, resulting in a favorable finding for the Turkish flour?

If the shelf life of flour is only one month before it develops mold and insects, how come Turkish flour in the Philippines has been given one-year expiry dates?

Is this the reason behind reports that Turkish flour sold in the Philippines is infested with lice and mold, the primary source of cancer-causing mycotoxins?

Why do our government officials turn a blind eye to this issue, placing the health and safety of our people at risk just so some greedy traders can make a killing?

Can the Turkish ambassador’s self-serving claim that the flour sold and consumed in Turkey has the same “high quality” as the flour exported to our country be believed?

The price of Turkish flour in Turkey at the Polatli Commodity Exchange averages at US$500 per metric ton, while that which reaches the Philippines is valued at less than US$300 per metric ton reference value set by the Bureau of Customs. Is not our country being made a dumping ground for uneatable Turkish flour?

The Turkish flour imported into the Philippines is grossly undervalued possibly to escape customs duties and taxes as well.

With Customs setting the reference value of imported flour at $300 per metric ton, Turkish flour is being imported at a suspiciously much lower value as shown by the chart below.

SAMPLE OF WHEAT FLOUR ARRIVALS FROM TURKEY

Port of Manila, MICP/ As of March 5, 2010

IMPORTER Entry Date Net Weight Declared CNF

(March)

Ingredient Mngt. Asia 3-March-10 120 MT $89.58/MT

(February)

Malabon Long Life 24-Feb-10 337.50 MT $295/MT

Mountain Glory Ent. 22-Feb-10 960 MT $186.25/MT

(January)

Uni-Trade Mfg. Corp. 27-Jan-10 240 MT $199.99/MT

Is the Food Expo showcasing Turkish flour at SMX Center some kind of damage-control, an effort to show how Turkish flour can be mixed with other flour to mask its low-nutrient content as established by an earlier BFAD order for it to be fortified?

Is it at the Expo where preservatives and flavourings will be mixed to mask the moldy taste of Turkish flour?

President Benigno Aquino III should look into this matter because it involves his concern of technical smuggling and corruption at the Bureau of Customs, not to mention the danger posed to the health of millions of Filipinos consuming Turkish flour.

What’s the difference between mycotoxin and the nicotine in cigarettes, when they both kill, albeit slowly?

With Indonesia already moving to stop the dumping of Turkish flour there, the Philippine government should no less to protect our people and to stop smuggling at the Bureau of Customs.

Once more, we appeal to P-Noy to ban the entry of garbage flour into our country!

“ANG PAGPILI PARA SA IKABUBUTI NG TAUMBAYAN;

ANG PAGTANAW SA INTERES NG NAKARARAMI;

ANG PAGKAPIT SA PRINSIPYO… ITO PO ANG TUWID NA DAAN.”

--President Noynoy Aquino

The Turkish flour dump

Armed with an 85-percent trust rating, in his State of the Nation Address, President Aquino confirmed what many fear. By virtually debunking dubious drumbeating and claims of competence, rose-colored statistics and an economic renaissance conjured up by Gloria Arroyo’s economic managers, Mr. Aquino enumerated how the country had been systematically plundered.

From the President’s list, we’ve singled out the issue of financial governance, specifically, the initiative on antismuggling. And upon it we’ve placed a face, albeit one painfully etched with deep lines and a frown.

It is not difficult to sympathize with the local flour industry. For too long the government has been unsympathetic, favoring, instead, smuggled and dumped importations.

We’ve written about this before. Former Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. sounded the alarm and even called for a congressional inquiry.

In studies by the Haceteppe University in Ankara, Turkey, the Department of Food Hygiene and Technology of the Istanbul University and the Department of Food Technology of the Balikesir University in Turkey, ochratoxins were found in 81 percent of analyzed samples and on those exported to Asia, 21.7 percent were contaminated with aflatoxins.

Aflatoxins and ochratoxins are mycotoxins. Mycotoxins are toxic products that enter the food chain from fungi that colonize crops. Both are deadly carcinogens. Once ingested, both resist decomposition and digestion. Both cannot be destroyed by cooking or freezing.

Unfortunately, cash registers peal louder than alarm bells. Trade officials have declared Turkish flour safe.

When commissions are earned for importations, nobody cares about toxicity. The rotting rice piled in National Food Authority (NFA) warehouses from recent overimportations is just one example.

Warped as it is, government indifference is typical. Inferior Turkish flour is used on lower-end products by the lower-end market. Add to that Arroyo’s hunger index and the increasing number subsisting on pagpag—the nouvelle cuisine that characterizes Arroyo economics. If the destitute can eat pre-eaten garbage, who cares about toxins?

More than the issue of public health, issues of smuggling—whether outright or technical—were accorded even lesser importance. Note that less than two years ago under the noses of Customs officials at the Port of Manila, five containers filled with Turkish wheat flour were allowed entry, despite protests from local millers who said the shipments were either misdeclared or smuggled.

Never mind that, previously, 10 containers, whose contents were misdeclared as starch but were later discovered to be smuggled flour, were off-loaded in Ozamiz City.

Faced with government dereliction, at wits end, in May local flour millers asked the government to investigate the dumping and technical smuggling of cheap Turkish flour. Submitting to Malacañang’s Review Committee on Smuggling and Tax Evasion Cases, documents detailing Turkish-flour smuggling, the businessmen virtually lined up the ducks.

Aside from inferior-grade Turkish wheat, local millers revealed that of 86,000 metric tons imported from Turkey last year, as much as 19,000 were undervalued—the equivalent of P16.9 million in tariff-revenue losses.

For the first quarter of 2010, they also reported that 80 containers brought in through the Port of Batangas were declared at 88.4 percent lower than statutory values under the Value Reference Information System (VRIS) set by the Office of the Commissioner of Customs.

Given an 88.4-percent undervaluation, all established by a single importer, over P4.6 million in tariff revenues was lost in one quarter. By the May elections, five months into 2010, at least P51 million had been lost through the Turkish importations of at least eight companies.

The report filed with Malacañang shows two of the eight used the Manila International Container Port (MICP), while a third used both the MICP and the Port of Manila.

One imported 8,592 MT, but underdeclared by as much as 37.30 percent. Another imported 7,086 MT, but underdeclared 30 percent. A third imported 10,488 MT, but underdeclared 23.3 percent. In each instance, over P13.8 million, P6.9-million and another P6.9 million, respectively, might have been cheated from the government.

For the accumulated losses, simply do the math. Turkish flour is assessed with a 7- percent duty and a 12-percent value-added tax upon entry. Given volumes imported between 2008 and 2009, undervaluations would have resulted in over P50 million in lost revenues. Add the 2010’s P51 million and one sees the importance of Mr. Aquino’s antismuggling initiative.

Newly appointed Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez and Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Jacinto-Henares have their work cut out for them. Fortunately, both are eminently qualified, competent and driven. To both, Godspeed and good hunting.

-Dean de la Paz

Source: http://businessmirror.com.ph/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=28229:the-turkish-flour-dump&catid=28:opinion&Itemid=64

Lick it or not

IF ONLY we can lick the collection leaks in the Bureau of Customs…

Well, the new customs commissioner, Angelito Alvarez, who this early got some bad press over his indiscretion in a game of golf, just barred what are known as “haoshiao”— those “fake” employees—at the BOC inspection areas.

From what I gathered, they served as conduits between BOC personnel (real ones) and customs brokers in releasing import shipments. We all know what happens in such transactions.

Still, getting rid of those scalawags may not be enough. Smuggling has become a huge protection racket under that administration.

The IMF estimated that uncollected VAT on our imports alone could amount to more than P20 billion a year.

In business, they are saying that healing the government finances of the smuggling scourge can become one of the priorities of the Aquino (Part II) administration.

Local flour milling companies, for instance, have been complaining about rampant smuggling of flour from Turkey.

Our info is, well, the industry already submitted a detailed report on the smuggling operation of at least eight companies. It is hard to say whether or not Alvarez has already seen it. More likely, the syndicates at the BOC tore it apart, burned the scraps, and buried the ash.

Anyway, reports persisted that, apart from being smuggled, shipments of certain brands of Turkish flour were contaminated. The guys down here, more than anybody else up there, will most likely end up consuming the bad flour.

Reportedly, the government so far this year lost at least P51 million in import duties and VAT on imported Turkish flour—and this was only based on the operation of those eight firms, as detailed in the paper submitted to BOC.

In one case, the importer valued the flour shipment at $24.77 per metric ton. The reference value, which is a guide for the BOC, was $300 per. It’s that kind of cheating!

Word has it that the undervaluation continues even under the Aquino (Part II) administration. We need to stop it right away.

That kind of concrete step, boss!

-Conrado Banal III

Source: http://business.inquirer.net/money/columns/view/20100728-283688/Lick-it-or-not

Showcase government's resolve

For all the brickbats being hurled at the new Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez, one thing is for sure, running the Customs bureau is no small feat.

He needs an iron will and a firm resolve to combat smuggling at all points of entry. His precedessors have failed because smuggling is well-engrained in the system. And one thing is for sure, the technical smugglers in particular continue to go about their usual business because somebody inside the bureau is facilitating matters for them.

Smuggling is not only inherently wrong, it also punishes each and every one of us because it deprives government of badly needed revenues which it could have used for public service and infrastructure.

Alvarez has already barred haoshiaos at custom inspection areas, which is believed as a necessary first step in the effort to make all transactions open and aboveboard. But a lot more needs to be done. If the system needs to be overhauled, then so be it. If heads have to roll, then do it. Six years may not be enough for the new Customs chief to accomplish so much, if we are talking about reorienting, reeducating, changing a culture of distrust with anything that has to do with the Customs bureau. But someone has to start the ball rolling.

From what I’ve learned from people complaining about the effects of smuggling, there are two kinds of smuggling: the actual backdoor smuggling and technical smuggling. Backdoor smuggling takes place when goods are brought into the country via big vessels that in turn load the smuggled goods into smaller boats which manage to enter our territory. But the volume of goods smuggled through this process is not as significant compared with those brought in via technical smuggling. After all, how much can the small boats accommodate? Unless the men in these boats carry high-powered firearms, they should be no match to our patrol boats.

Technical smuggling on the other hand can take different forms. It can be through misdeclaration and undervaluation. Misdeclaration happens when goods are declared as another kind of goods which under our tariff schedule has lower import duties. Undervaluation is another form of technical smuggling whereby the actual volume or value (or both) of goods brought in is not reported so that a smaller amount of duties and taxes is levied. But in both cases, the importations are legitimate and brought in through the major ports of entry, complete with papers and stuff.

Take the case of the reported technical smuggling of Turkish flour into the country. According to reports reaching the Customs bureau, already, at least P51 million in import duties and value-added taxes has been lost by government in the first five months of 2010 alone.

The P51-million estimate pertains only to the operation of eight companies. A bigger amount may be involved if the operations of other smugglers are factored in.

According to the report, two of the eight companies used the Manila International Container Port (MICP) as point of entry while a third used both the MICP and the Port of Manila.

The first cheated government of at least P13.8 million by importing 8,592 metric tons but declaring only 5,389; while the second imported 7,086 metric tons while declaring only 4,961, evading the payment of P6.9 million.

Meanwhile, the third importer brought in 10,488 tons but undervalued it by 23.3 percent to save P6.9 million in duties and taxes.

They say the imported Turkish flour had been undervalued for as low as $24.77 per ton when the reference value of Turkish flour at Customs is at $300 per ton.

The big question is, how are they able to get away with this?

This is one question for which Alvarez will have to find the answer himself. He needs to identify the loopholes in the system, the men and women at customs who are given discretion to determine the volume and value of goods brought in, those who are equally given the discretion to impose the amounts payable, among others. Does the customs bureau have the capacity to identify if the goods are properly declared? I remember before when powdered juice is being used as a means to smuggle into the country sugar. Powdered juice has a lower import duty compared with sugar, but it contains as much as 90 percent sugar. There’s something definitely wrong with the system if this is the case.

If I’m not mistaken, the same thing happened with animal feedwheat and breadwheat. The difference between the two is the former is of lower quality. But there has been reports before that what was being declared as feedwheat, and therefore carried with it lower duties, is being used as wheat for food. Isn’t there an internally accepted method to determine which is which?

This huge room for discretion has been used by some unscrupulous people at the customs to fatten their pockets.

But the case of Turkish flour smuggling is not as complicated. Does the system rely on what is being declared? There must be a way of checking the volumes and value declared against the actual. There is no excuse for this practice being allowed to cheat the government of its lifeblood.

President Aquino and commissioner Alvarez should not allow smugglers to continue mocking government. Inarguably the most corrupt agency in the entire bureaucracy, the customs bureau should be used as a showcase of the new government’s resolve to end corruption in the public sector.

-Mary Ann Ll. Reyes

Source: http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=596333&publicationSubCategoryId=66