5 BOC men face raps over smuggled rice

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Customs (BOC) has filed smuggling charges against five of the agency’s employees who were implicated in the smuggling of rice into the country that deprived the government of P183 million in revenue.

Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez also relieved yesterday and placed on preventive suspension five bureau employees suspected of conniving with an importer and a Customs broker in the smuggling of 312,400 sacks of rice into the country.

Alvarez reportedly imposed sanctions against principal Customs examiners Vicitacion Difontorum and Theresa Agabao, Customs examiner Margarita Santiago, and acting document processors Taha Cali and Glen Ollero.

The suspects reportedly aided Lamberto Espiritu, owner of Point Given Marketing located at Unit 1719 Cityland Condominium, 720 Pablo Ocampo Jr. Avenue (former Vito Cruz), Malate, Manila City; and Customs broker Allan Jay de Vera Gahon of 2565 Interior 1, Jose Abad Santos St. in Tondo, Manila in the smuggling of 312,400 sacks of rice that were loaded inside 781 container vans.

Each container van reportedly contained 400 sacks of rice.

The BOC’s Run After the Smugglers (RATS) group also filed at the Department of Justice (DOJ) charges for violation of the provisions of the Tariffs and Customs Code of the Philippines (TCCP) and the Revised Penal Code (RPC) against the five bureau personnel, Espiritu and Gahon.

Alvarez said the filing of the charges against the Customs employees is intended to send a strong warning to employees that the criminal liability of officials accused of conniving with smugglers is equivalent to the criminal liability of brokers and consignees.

Customs Deputy Commissioner Gregorio Chaves, concurrent executive director of the BOC’s RATS program, added that “despite all glaring violations of the TCCP and the absence of the required permit from the appropriate government agencies such as the National Food Authority (NFA), the responsible personnel of the Port of Manila allowed the release of the subject 781 containers in favor of Point Given Marketing, making them criminally liable, particularly the customs examiner and appraisers.”

The Revenue Integrity Protection Service (RIPS) of the Department of Finance (DOF) will conduct lifestyle checks on the five bureau employees.

The white rice shipments were allegedly misdeclared as mung beans, which under Customs laws were exempted from the payment duties and taxes, while rice importations should have been slapped with 50 percent duties and 12 percent value added tax (VAT).

With the reported deception, the government was deprived of collecting P183 million in duties and taxes.

The shipment that came from Vietnam arrived at the Port of Manila from January to May of this year. 

Meanwhile, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima encouraged the public to cooperate with the efforts of the government to curb smuggling and tax evasion in the country.

He said that the DOF website www.perangbayan.com is a feedback mechanism where the public can report the performance of civil servants. The website has so far received more than 1,000 tips. The information is given to the concerned agency. 

The BOC, by November, intends to implement a new segregation scheme for imported cargo.

The shipments would either be classified as super green, green or red. This is part of the agency’s efforts to counter smuggling activities in the country.

Cargo that go through the super green lanes are shipments “that would be considered like domestic shipment because they have no corresponding tariffs such as semiconductors and beans,” said Alvarez.

Shipments that would fall under the green lane are those with reputable importers, maybe those that belong to the top 200 companies. The red lane items would be those that require scrutiny such as general merchandise.

He estimated that it would only take 24 hours for the imported products to be released under the super green lane; one to two days under the green lane and two days to one week under the red lane.

The innovation on the segregation of cargoes is patterned after the practice in Indonesia.