Gov't urged to eliminate rice cartels, smugglers

Has anyone who violated our laws against cartels and the smuggling of agricultural and fisheries products ever been punished?

- By GHIO ONG

Makati City Mayor Abby Binay posed this question as a challenge to the government to take more aggressive action against individuals and businesses engaged in rice cartels and smuggling to protect the public from price manipulation in the market.

"With all the laws we have when it comes to cartels and profiteering, why is it that no one has been jailed yet? Even smugglers, when caught, are not shown to the public, they're not exposed. They just say they'll blacklist them... But the question is, have we ever seen anyone punished as an example?" she said in Filipino over radio dzBB.