Estrada pal’s firm asked to pay P111 M in cigarette taxes

Customs authorities are demanding P111.1 million in taxes from a company linked to an associate of ousted President Joseph Estrada for allegedly smuggling Winston and Marlboro cigarettes through the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) freeport in Zambales in 1999.

Sources told The STAR yesterday Customs investigators have not seen the name of Lucio Lao Co in the documents of the controversial cargo consigned to SBMA-based Goldlink International Inc.

However, the sources said Co’s name "always crops up whenever smuggled cigarettes are involved," and that’s why he is rumored to be Goldlink’s owner even if other people’s names appear on the documents.

"There is nothing yet that will directly link Co to the anomaly," sources said.

Lawyer Emerito Villaruz, former SBMA Customs collector, who is now Customs warehouse audit and monitoring unit (WAMU) chief, told The STAR yesterday the cigarettes arrived at SBMA in eight 40-foot vans from Singapore without any duties being paid.

Villaruz said the cargo was later sneaked out of SBMA instead of being shipped to its actual destination at Port Salomangue in Ilocos Sur.

"When we checked them out, the supposed transshipment did not arrive there," he said. "The shipment was diverted."

Villaruz said a team was created last December to investigate the case and identify the persons responsible for the anomaly, but that investigators are still looking for the missing shipment.

Sources told The STAR yesterday a certain "Iman Ong" is registered as the general manager of Goldlink, while the name "Montero" appears as "operations manager" in import documents.

Sources said Goldlink is contesting before the Bureau of Customs the tax assessment and promised to submit the required documents, like the bill of lading and packing list, next week to prove that the cargo’s release from SBMA was aboveboard.

Meanwhile, "Batman and Robin" were identified yesterday as the leaders of a big-time gang of smugglers operating at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and other ports of entry.

Customs Commissioner Titus Villanueva told reporters at the NAIA the smugglers are identified with Estrada, but he refused to give their actual names.

"A composite team from the Department of Justice, Department of Finance, National Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Customs, and the (Philippine) National Police is about to wind up its investigation on the smuggling activities of these persons and will be required to first present their side before cases of plunder would be filed against them," he said.

Villanueva said Malacañang had ordered him to focus on the alleged involvement of members of Estrada’s family in smuggling operations at the South Harbor and the Manila International Container Port.

"That’s part of the whole term of reference," he said.

Villanueva said members of the anti-smuggling task force will determine when the investigation would be ended so the guilty could be prosecuted and the innocent cleared of any charge.

"The innocent should have their names cleared before the bar of public opinion," he said.

Villanueva said "Customs insiders" told him that large shipments were being brought out without clearance from the South Harbor and the Manila Container Port during the Estrada administration.

"(The smugglers) always dropped the name of President Estrada to intimidate (Customs officials)," he said.

Villanueva said his men would "assess what should be assessed" so the bureau can meet the P125-billion revenue collection target that Malacañang had imposed.

"We will collect what is collectible," he said. "We will open what should be opened."

On the other hand, Customs Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence and Enforcement Ray Allas told reporters yesterday the bureau will run after importers that have not paid billions of pesos in taxes for years.

"We will blacklist them so that they can no longer transact business with the bureau," he said. "That’s why the economy is down because no money is going to the national treasury."

Allas said the bureau will abolish its special task forces because of complaints that they had been used for extortion activities and other abuses.

Allas said the Risk Management Group (RMG) under Roberto Santayana and the Special Projects Team (SPT) under Jaime Maglipon will be abolished and their members returned to their mother units.

"There will be no more field deployment from now on for the RMG," he said. "This is a management group whose job, which includes risk analysis and evaluation, is confined in the office."

Allas said the WAMU under Villaruz will be retained but "all personnel will be changed."

However, Allas said he is leaving to Villanueva the fate of the officials who had been relieved and that he will appoint their replacements on consultation with the commissioner.