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Wednesday, august 2, 2017
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MANILA – Lawmakers could not hide their exasperation as they investigated on Monday the alleged involvement of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) in a shipment of shabu from China worth P6.4 billion (US$126 million).
The Senate blue ribbon committee, headed by Sen. Richard Gordon, was looking into possible “malfeasance, misfeasance, and nonfeasance of the officials and employees of the Bureau of Customs,” it said.
“Kung hindi incompetent ang mga tao sa Customs, corrupt sila,” Gordon said.
Uproar ensued over the 600-kilogram shipment of shabu, or methamphetamine hydrochloride, when BOC and National Bureau of Investigation operatives raided a warehouse in Valenzuela City on May 26 and discovered the contraband, Customs officials at the Senate hearing recounted.
The shabu, imported by a company named EMT Trading, was declared as kitchenware, Neil Estrella, head of the BOC’s Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service, told the Senate hearing. He added that the shabu was discovered in 605 bags stuffed into five cylinders.
The Senate committee questioned how the shipment, prior to the raid, made its way relatively unhampered on May 23 through Customs’ so-called express “green” lane, one of four lanes that shipments have to go through based on the record of importers registered with the bureau.
The BOC said it has four channels for imports:
* a “super green” lane for multinational companies with a track record of honest business;
* a “green” lane which needs no further investigation, X-ray, or physical inspection that it has complete and accurate documents;
* a “yellow” lane which needs document verification;
* and a “red” lane that makes X-ray and inspection of shipment mandatory.
Capt. Gerardo Gambala of the BOC’s Command Center told the hearing that the BOC receives up to 10,000 shipments daily and has limited ability to inspect all of these.
Earlier, Valenzuela City representative Wes Gatchalian, in whose district the warehouse that yielded the shabu was located in, expressed alarm at how the BOC allowed the shabu to pass through the express lane, even when the cargo exceeded weight limits for the lane.
In a statement, Gatchalian noted that the five cylinders were metal insulators used for printing presses. He said the cylinders, which usually weighed just 100 kilos each, weighed twice as much.
In the course of grilling customs officials, the Senate committee found enough grounds to hold the release of the shipment: it originated from China, and EMT Trading – had only one owner, and was relatively new in the customs brokerage business.
“If you put a parameter that is ‘new importer,’ you should populate the data kung sino ‘yung mga dumadating na ‘new importer’ by inputting their TIN (tax identification number) sir. So para pag nabasa ng system, tatamaan siya,” Gambala said.
“In this instance, sir, nakita namin na hindi niya nailagay sir,” he added, which meant that EMT Trading, was not in the BOC database of importers.
Senator Panfilo Lacson, a committee member, pointed out the haste with which the BOC processed the importation papers for the shipment filed by EMT Trading in May.
“Hindi ba dapat ni-review niyo lahat ‘yung importation ng EMT? Thirteen importations na iisa ang supplier, na sunud-sunod dumating,” Lacson asked.
He asked why Customs officials failed to alert other authorities, even after the initial shipment of shabu was delivered to the HongFei Logistics warehouse in Valenzuela City owned by a certain Richard Chen.
Sen. Franklin Drilon said the incident clearly showed the involvement of some Customs officials in the drug trade. “Maliwang na kasabwat dito ang Customs sa pagpalusot ng shipment at hindi natin alam kung ilan pa,” he said at the hearing.
At the hearing, the embattled BOC commissioner Nicanor Faeldon said he takes full responsibility for the shipment’s release. “I will take full responsibility to every pound or kilo of shabu that comes into the country effective my assumption in July 1,” he said. (CNN Philippines)
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