Congress set to wrap up probe into car smuggling

The House committee on good government is winding up its investigation on Wednesday into the alleged rampant car smuggling activities in the Port of Cebu.

Camiguin Rep. Pedro Romualdo, chairman of the committee, said that they will hold their last hearing on Wednesday in Manila to conclude several months of investigation into the complaints of the Cebu Auto Dealers Association of the alleged rampant car smuggling.

Romualdo said the committee has already come up several proposed legislations to curb vehicle smuggling not only in Cebu but in the entire country.  Among the proposed legislation is the limiting of the discretionary power of the Bureau of Customs as to how much tax an importer needs to pay to the government.

The members of the committee also have proposed to restore an old system wherein shipments will have to be inspected from the port of origin before it is allowed to be shipped into the country.

The congressmen noted that under the present system it is very easy to smuggle if one has contacts in the BOC.  Romualdo said that the committee will have to push for the compulsory X-ray of all imported shipments and not only to few selected shipments as what is being practiced at present.

Only shipments that have derogatory information are subjected to X-ray while others do not have to go through the process.

The committee has already sent out invitations to officials of the Bureau of Customs in Cebu to appear during the last hearing on Wednesday.

During the past hearings the committee was able to obtain a list of alleged smugglers operating in Cebu from the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group.

The list, which is said to contain at least six smugglers from Cebu, has not been made public by the committee.

PASG chief Antonio Villar admitted that they do not have evidence yet against these alleged smugglers that would warrant the filing of charges in court but added they are currently building up cases against them. — Fred P. Languido/BRP