THE House Committee on Agriculture and Food believes that the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) is in cahoots with the onion cartel in the country led by trader Leah Cruz who, according to a lawmaker, remains the “undisputed Sibuyas Queen.”
“Sa totoo lang, tila kasama sa equation itong BPI sa pagkakaroon ng isang onion cartel (In truth, it seems that this BPI is part of the equation in the existence of this onion cartel),” Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo, senior committee vice chair, said in a joint press conference with panel chairperson Quezon Rep. Mark Enverga.
The agriculture panel has been investigating the hoarding and price manipulation of onions, which led prices to skyrocket to as much as P700 per kilo late last year.
Quimbo, who is also a senior vice chair of the Committee on Appropriations, said the BPI needs to explain how and why Cruz was still allowed to participate in importation despite being blacklisted.
“May nagbubulag-bulagan ba o lantarang nakikipagsabwatan ang BPI sa pandaraya sa taong bayan? (Are they playing deaf and blind, or is the BPI blatantly involved in collusion to dupe the people?)” she said.
The BPI is an attached agency of the DA and is in charge of monitoring the state of onion supply in the country. The hearings have shown that the BPI was remiss in preventing the onion price surge due to failed interventions.
Quimbo said Cruz lied to the committee when she said that she is no longer involved in the importation of onions: “Si Leah Cruz ay ang reigning undisputed Sibuyas Queen (Leah Cruz is the undisputed Onion Queen).”
The economist-lawmaker said Cruz operates the biggest onion cartel in the country through an SEC-registered corporation called Philippine VIEVA, which was established in 2013.
“This was created at the time when she was first tagged as ‘Sibuyas Queen’ in a series of news reports in 2012. She is the effective majority owner of the company,” she said.
Quimbo said that while PhilVieva is no longer directly involved in onion trading as it was blacklisted in 2018, Cruz’s trucking business works with companies involved in onion trading.
She said the committee was able to establish that the BPI has granted onion import permits to three select entities whose owners are connected to PhilVieva, Yom Trading, La Reina, at Vegefru Producing Store.
In 2022, she said the three companies were the biggest importers of yellow onions with a total volume of 5,445.66 MT or 68.74 percent of total imported volume, while their imported red onions for the same year reached 7,648.81 metric tons or 41.02 percent of total imported volume.
“Klaro na patuloy siyang nag-import ng sibuyas despite all her denials. Nagsinungaling sya sa atin sa Kongreso, bagamat siya ay under oath (It’s clear that she continues to import red onions despite her denials. She lied to Congress despite being under oath),” Quimbo said, urging law enforcement and regulatory agencies to take a close look at the findings out the panel in order to build an airtight case against the cartel members.
For his part, Enverga said Cruz was able to have her way in the onion industry even before the current administration of President Marcos Jr. and that is why officials like former agriculture secretary William Dar, Marcos’ predecessor in the department, “has some explaining to do.”
“Based on the diagram presented by Cong. Stella Quimbo, former Sec. Dar has a lot of explaining to do,” Enverga said. “Katulad ng sinabi rin ni Cong. Stella, for a cartel to fly kinakailangan may kasama rin sa gobyerno (Like what Cong. Stella said, for a cartel to fly, they have cohorts in the government).”
