LA TRINIDAD, Benguet: More than P1.2 billion worth of smuggled agricultural crops were seized and destroyed by the Bureau of Customs (BoC) and the Department of Agriculture (DA) in various anti-smuggling operations in the different ports around the country last year.

Benguet caretaker and Anti-Crime and Terrorism through Community Involvement and Support party-list Rep. Eric Yap disclosed that the huge volume of smuggled agricultural crops that were seized and destroyed by the concerned government agencies only shows that something is being done to curb the proliferation of smuggled vegetables in various markets that directly compete with locally produced ones, which is ruining the gains to uplift the status of the province's vegetable industry.