BAGUIO CITY - Former Sen. Wigberto Tañada, an anti-globalization advocate, will join this month about 12,000 Benguet farmers in a series of rallies that will protest the displacement of Benguet vegetables by legally imported Australian produce, Benguet Gov. Raul Molintas said.

Molintas said Benguet Board Member Johnny Uy, a former Atok mayor and himself a vegetable farmer, had talked to Tañada in Manila this week to relay the farmers' concern that the Department of Agriculture had concealed the real impact of imported vegetables on their industry.

Molinats said Malacañang had yet to respond a former appeal made by seven Cordillera congressmen, six governors and a city mayor on Sept. 22 for a review of a government policy, which allowed Australian imports, despite Australia's trade barrier conflicts with Filipino farmers.

"We are asking President Macapagal-Arroyo why vegetable importation should be allowed in the first place, given the abundance of vegetables coming from the Cordillera," said Molintas.

He added: "(Agriculture Secretary Leonardo) Montemayor was here in August but he only disclosed to us the identities of three importers, among them Rustan's Supermarket and Tuckerbag Inc."

Molintas said the firms' import clearances in July only covered 3,348 kilograms of Australian carrots and 5,758 kg of assorted vegetables like lettuce and broccoli.

Montemayor earlier met with Benguet farmers after his inspection in La Trinidad, Benguet, confirmed the influx of smuggled Chinese vegetables that were apparently rerouted from a Japan shipment.

"Apparently, farmers here were given the wrong information, and therefore had braced themselves with wrong safety nets against imported Australian vegetables.  We thought we were fighting mere hotel suppliers.  We did not know we are competing with supermarkets and groceries already," Molintas said.

Patricio Ananayo, chief of the Department of Agriculture's agribusiness and marketing division here, said the locally produced vegetables already meet the demands of hotels and restaurants.

He said Benguet farmers have been importing American, Japanese and European hybrid seeds since the 1960s, which produce top-quality cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, potatoes and cabbages.

Lulu Gimenez, information officer of Apit-Tako (Alliance of peasants in the Cordillera Homeland), said Australian imports are better packaged, which explains their attractiveness to supermarket chains.  But local vegetables actually taste better and contain better nutrients, she said.

Benguet lost P21 billion in unfulfilled transactions after imports from Australia, New Zealand and The Netherlands between July and August this year displaced the province's vegetables.

"This situation prompts us to request for suspension of the implementation of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade provision for the lifting of quantitative restrictions on vegetables in the entire country, owing to its injurious effects (on Filipino farmers)," Cordillera officials said in their appeal to Ms. Macapagal-Arroyo.


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