Curiously, they got away with it by invoking a Philippine law allowing the use of local ports in the transshipment of goods.
The tuna smugglers were reportedly Taiwanese fishing vessels that entered the General Santos port without export documents and sold their tuna catches to some of the canneries in the area.
The city hosts six of the country’s eight tuna canneries plus 15 other fish processing and storage plants.
Reports of smuggling of tuna to General Santos surfaced during the consultation conference called by the Export Development Council (EDC) in the city held last week by Rogelio Lim Sr., owner of General Santos Aqua Traders and among the dozen operators of domestic fishing vessels who are getting unfair competition from the illegal imports.
The EDC has started going the rounds in regions across the islands with high population of exporters to get their inputs in the revision of the Philippine Export Development Plan that is set to lapse at the end of this year.
Other participants to the conference validated the allegations made by Lim.
“Equipped with superior fishing technology, subsidized by their government, and bringing in tax-free tuna to the fishing port of General Santos, the smugglers are able to offer their catches at prices much lower than the prices of local fishing vessel operators”, Lim reported.
The Taiwanese were reportedly getting away with their caper by invoking a Philippine law allowing the transshipment of goods through Philippine ports.
“That is illegal”, said Ambassador Donald G. Dee, Philexport trustee for the textile sector and the private sector’ representative in the Philippine trade negotiating team. He explained that this is stretching the application of the transshipment law too far.
“The law simply allows cargo vessels to dock at any of the Philippines international seaports on their way to their final port of destination. It does not include unloading a ship s cargo, and selling it to a processing plant that exports its product,” Dee said.
Taiwanese fishing vessels have been regularly seen by small fishermen from as far north as Ilocos Norte to the territorial waters of Mindanao for dozens of years now. Sometimes, coast guards collared them but they were often released after short stays in Philippine jails.
They have been joined recently by mainland Chinese fishing vessels searching for exotic fish varieties in Philippine seas.
But smuggling their catches and unloading the fish cargoes in domestic ports in broad daylight, is a new phenomenon. (Abe P. Belena/Philexport News and Features/Sunnex)
