Biazon vows no let-up in BOC's anti-smuggling drive

MANILA, Philippines -  Customs Commissioner Ruzzano Ruffino “Ruffy” Biazon said there would be no let-up in the agency’s anti-smuggling efforts following the decision of the Office of the President to suspend Deputy Commissioner Gregorio Chavez who used to head the agency’s anti-smuggling group.

Chavez, head of the agency’s Run After Smugglers (RATS) and seven others were placed on preventive suspension for 90 days following an administrative complaint filed by a steel company charged with smuggling. RATS is the agency’s program against smugglers.

“The program will continue,” Biazon said.

He said the fight against smuggling would not be affected by the change in the leadership of the RATS group.

Following the decision of the Office of the President, Biazon has designed Deputy Commissioner Peter Manzano, who heads the Revenue Collection and Monitoring Group to assume the functions of the RATS group.

Chavez, for his part, has turned to the Court of Appeals to block an administrative complaint filed by Sanyo Seiki Steel Corp. (SSSC) against him and seven of his men.

They were placed under preventive suspension following the filing of the administrative complaint.

The suspended members were Christopher Dy Buco, Edgar Quinones, Francisco Fernandez Jr. Alfredo Adao, Jose Elmer Velarde, Thomas Patric Relucio and Jim Erick Acosta.

Sanyo Seiki claimed in its complaint that the eight RATS smugglers were engaged in extortion activities and abuse of authority. However, the RATS members said that Sanyo Seiki is resorting to harassment to prevent them from pursuing the criminal complaint filed by the RATS group of the BOC.

Last January, the RATS group has filed a case against Sanyo Seiki president Gregory Uy Chan before te Department of Justice. The group filed the smuggling case against the company for “misdeclaring, underweighing, and undervaluing their various steel and stainless steel importations last year by nearly 90 percent.”

According to the RATS Group, Sanyo Seiki imported steel products worth P1.3 billion but declared this as worth only P165.4 million using false and spurious invoices to reduce their tax liabilities to P25.3 million from the supposedly P179.4 million.

The company earlier filed a graft case before the Ombudsman against Chavez, two other BOC officials, and several private citizens following the filing of a smuggling case against the steel importer by the RATS Group.

“The RATS Group has been stepping on big toes in our unrelenting drive against smugglers. Now, we can see that the smuggling syndicates are using all the resources at their disposal to get rid of us and make the RATS program fail,” Chavez said.

Under his watch, the Aquino administration has filed 44 smuggling cases with a total estimated dutiable value of almost P60 billion or an average of P1.4 billion dutiable value each case.