Trader, broker charged with smuggling of submarine

MANILA, Philippines - A trader and a customs broker were charged with smuggling before the Department of Justice yesterday for allegedly misdeclaring a P5-million recreational submarine.

Customs Commissioner Rufino Biazon said Caloocan City trader Roberto Navarra and his licensed customs broker Lucman Calbe Jr. were charged with violating the Tariffs and Customs Code and the Revised Penal Code when they allegedly misdeclared the submarine as outboard motor parts and accessories.

Consigned to Navarra’s firm Dionysus Trading, the recreational submarine was found inside a 40-footer container van that arrived at the Manila International Container Port from South Korea last March 12.

The submarine will be auctioned off, Biazon said.

Meanwhile, Biazon denied yesterday news reports that he had promoted two Customs officials implicated in the missing 1,626 container vans being transshipped from the Port of Manila to Batangas City.

No irregularity occurred in the promotion  of Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service Director Fernandino Tuason and Manila International Container Port   deputy collector Floro Calixihan Jr., he added.

Contrary to the news report, Tuason was not promoted last September 2012, Biazon said.

Records showed that Tuason’s appointment came out of the Presidential Action Center in September 2011.

It was then referred to the Department of Finance, which endorsed his papers to the BOC in October of 2011.

The BOC then endorsed Tuason’s promotion to the DOF in December 2011. President Aquino released his appointment in February 2012.