Bureau of Customs teams to locate missing shipments

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Customs (BOC) has dispatched two teams to locate the contents of the 1,900 container vans that went missing while en route to Batangas from the Port of Manila.

BOC Commissioner Angelito Alvarez on Thursday ordered the agency’s Intelligence Division chief Jose Yuchongco to find the missing cargoes consisting mostly of plastic resins, textiles, foodstuff, personal effects, and household products from China, Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia.

The container vans have already been returned to their respective owners, but without the contents.

“I have already sent out two teams to start gathering information. Initially, they would be going around Metro Manila because we believe that since these cargoes never reached Batangas, chances are they are being housed somewhere in the Metro Manila area,” Yuchongco said.

“This would be a difficult job because we would have to check several facts. So we are only appealing for the other groups or individuals, with whom we would be coordinating, to cooperate in our ongoing investigation,” he said.

He said his teams would perform their task even during the long weekend. He expects to submit his report to Alvarez in two weeks.

The BOC said a total of 2,219 containers covered by transshipment permits were processed between January and May this year at both the Manila International Container Port and the Port of Manila.

But of the transshipped containers, the Batangas District Office acknowledged receipt of only 309 containers.

Zambales Rep. Ma. Milagros Magsaysay used the case of the missing container vans as basis to demand Alvarez’s resignation. She said the anomaly had deprived the government of over P3 billion in revenues.

But Alvarez said Magsaysay’s demand was unreasonable because it was he who had exposed and ordered the investigation of the disappearance of the cargoes.

Alvarez on Thursday announced the filing of smuggling charges against consignees and brokers believed to be responsible for the disappearance of the cargoes. Respondents in the case were officials and representatives of Sea Eagle Trading, LCN Trading and Moncelian Enterprises.

For Valenzuela Rep. Magtanggol Gunigundo, the disappearance of the container vans containing highly taxable goods may be ground for the filing of a plunder case against Alvarez.

“Depending on the evidence we will gather during the committee hearings, we will recommend the filing of criminal charges against the Customs commissioner,” Gunigundo said in a telephone interview. Gunigundo is a senior member of the House sub-committee on tariff and customs.

“The worst could be plunder because somebody benefited from the billions of pesos in lost revenues to the government when these container vans were diverted to some private warehouses,” he said.

“These losses did not happen once but in a series of events,” he added. A plunder charge should involve P50 million or more.

Gunigundo said Alvarez would also have to be investigated for the alleged complicity of some top BOC officials in smuggling cases.

“We have long been calling for the resignation of Commissioner Alvarez. When he resigns, this does not mean we will stop our inquiry. We have to determine the extent of anomaly and who are involved,” he said.

Gunigundo said he would present new witnesses in the next hearing, including a truck driver who alleged to have delivered the container vans to a warehouse in Binondo, Manila.

Shell excise tax case

Meanwhile, Alvarez said the BOC’s Run-After-The-Smugglers (RATS) group has joined Pilipinas Shell in requesting SGS Philippines to test a sample of alkylate imported by the oil firm to determine if it’s a finished product and subject to excise tax or an intermediate product.

The test will also determine if there is basis for the P1.6-billion claim by the BOC’s Batangas Collection District against Pilipinas Shell.

“The recent controversy surrounding the alkylate importation of Pilipinas Shell boils down to the question as to whether alkylate is an intermediate product and thus not subject to excise tax (as claimed by Pilipinas Shell) or a finished product, specifically motor gasoline (as claimed by the officials of the Port of Batangas),” Alvarez said in a statement.

“The only way for us to find out is through the engagement of a third party, independent body that can provide a credible and irrefutable certification on the true nature of alkylate,” he said.

He said the testing certificate issued by Brian Bailey, division manager of SGS Oil, Gas and Chemicals, indicated that the sample “did not pass the Philippine National Standard for premium plus, premium and regular gasoline on the 10 percent volume recovered distillation test, and on the Octane Number test for premium plus gasoline.”

“And it does not help that the BIR had effectively recognized alkylate as raw material not subject to excise tax when it issued an individual Authority to Release Imported Goods (ATRIG) for all the alkylate importations involved in the subject claim,” he said. 

“While these two developments do not seem to support the P1.6-billion claim being recommended by our Batangas Collection District against Pilipinas Shell, we have decided to refer this matter to the Department of Energy for guidance pending the outcome of our own investigation being undertaken by the RATS group,” Alvarez said. - With Paolo Romero