VILLAR: ONIONS USED TO SMUGGLE SHABU

The scent of onions is a good cover for illegal drugs.

That's according to Senate President Pro Tempore Manuel Villar, who said
large shipments of onions from abroad are being used to conceal the entry
of illegal drugs into the country.

"We have received reports that onions are used to camouflage drug shipments
such as shabu from Hong Kong," said Villar, who is also chairman of the
Senate committee on agriculture.

"Aside from wreaking havoc on the livelihood of our farmers, there are
reports that imported onions are also being used in the illegal drug
trade," stressed Villar.

He said he has already alerted the Bureau of Customs on the alleged modus
operandi of drug smugglers.

Onions, Villar says, are the favored camouflage for drugs as canine sniff
dogs trained to detect prohibited drugs are not able to smell the
contraband as the scent is masked by the pungent bulbs.

The onions used to smuggle drugs, he says, are sold cheaply in the market,
further adding to the country's onion stock to the detriment of local farmers.

"Our authorities must be alerted to this kind of modus operandi which not
only hurts onion farmers but threatens to destroy the lives of our youth
and contributes to criminality," said Villar.

Earlier, Villar, taking the cudgels for the domestic onion industry, called
for the revocation of import permits, citing that the country is
self-sufficient in terms of onions.

The other day, a group of onion growers from Nueva Ecija sought the help of
Villar against the unabated importation and smuggling of onions.

The onion growers estimate that onion output for this year will reach
168,000 tons, 8,000 tons more than the national requirement.

They said that since the Philippines is already self-sufficient in onions,
there is no need to import the commodity. They also complained that they
could not compete satisfactorily with the low priced imports.

The Department of Agriculture said they could not stop the importation of
onions without violating the Philippine commitment to the World Trade
Organization on trade liberalization.

Villar said that if the importation could not be stopped, then he would
look at ways to lower the production cost of onions so growers could
successfully compete with imported ones.

"I will look at the provision of cheap fertilizers and pesticides to lower
production cost," he added.