Lookout bulletin issued on Bangayan

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Justice (DOJ) has issued a lookout bulletin against businessman Davidson Bangayan, who is being tagged by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) as rice smuggling king David Tan.

In an urgent memorandum issued last Thursday afternoon, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima directed the Bureau of Immigration (BI) to be on alert for Bangayan “in the event that he should pass through immigration counters in any of our international airports and/or seaports.”

The BI was ordered to immediately coordinate with her office or with the NBI on “any pertinent information, especially those tending to indicate that the subject is attempting to leave the country.”

A lookout bulletin order, however, is for monitoring purposes only and does not allow airport authorities to prevent the flight of the subject.

The DOJ currently has no power to issue hold departure order or watchlist order against criminal suspects because its authority is subject of a standing temporary restraining order issued by the Supreme Court.

The DOJ explained that Bangayan is a subject of an ongoing investigation by the NBI for alleged rice smuggling and other related violations of criminal laws, including the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, Article 186 of the Revised Penal Code and penal provisions of the Tariffs and Customs Code of the Philippines.

But in the same order, the DOJ chief told the BI of the standing warrant of arrest against Tan issued by the Caloocan City regional trial court Branch 126. The NBI believes Tan and Bangayan are the same person.

She also ordered the NBI to coordinate with the BI and provide all necessary information on Bangayan for the implementation of the lookout bulleting.

Apart from this, the DOJ also formally asked the Caloocan City regional trial court Branch 126 for records of the electric pilferage case against Tan.

It was Caloocan RTC Branch 126 Judge Lorenza Bordios-Paculdo who issued the arrest warrant against Tan, which specifically stated that “David Tan who is not Davidson Bangayan.”

The same arrest warrant became the basis of the NBI to immediately arrest Bangayan after he voluntarily appeared before the agency on Tuesday to deny reports linking him to rice smuggling activities.

De Lima said she was baffled why the court would specifically clarify in the arrest warrant that Bangayan and Tan are not the same person.

She said she would check how Bangayan was able to secure an NBI clearance.

The NBI yesterday reiterated its stand that Bangayan and alleged rice smuggler David Tan are one and the same person.

“We are maintaining the position of the Secretary [De Lima] that they are one,” said NBI Director Virgilio Mendez.

“The secretary has also said that we have sufficient evidence to prove that.”

He, however, declined to divulge the pieces of evidence that the bureau has against Bangayan since the probe is still ongoing.

Bureau of Customs (BOC) Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence Group (IG) Jessie Dellosa yesterday said that Bangayan is one of the personalities that they have been investigating even before the businessman appeared before the DOJ last Tuesday.

“He (Bangayan) is actually included in our list, but we are still investigating. But as of now, we do not have any concrete evidence against him.”

But he clarified that even if the BOC is conducting an investigation parallel to the NBI, he is not inclined to invite Bangayan to shed light on the investigation.

“I think there is no need since he has already been questioned by the NBI,” he added.

Dellosa said that a month after he joined the bureau last September, he began his probe on the rice smuggling activities in the country and learned that there are three and not just one smuggler using the name “David Tan.”

The David Tans were differentiated by their appearance – one was stout, another thin and the third still young.

Based on the information they have been receiving, the three David Tans have recently stopped their illegal operations.

Only one of the David Tans is reportedly involved in technical smuggling. They are still determining the nature of operations of the two other personalities.

LGUs against smuggling

In order to make the government’s campaign against smuggling more effective, Senator Aquilino Pimentel III said the national government and local government units (LGUs) should join effort to curb smuggling.

According to Pimentel, the government has failed to fully address the problem of smuggling as evidenced by the estimated P1.3 trillion in revenues it lost to smuggling from 2002 to 2011.

He said that the LGUs could play a very important role in the anti-smuggling effort but they must be given the proper incentives.

Pimentel filed a bill seeking to grant a bigger share of national taxes to the LGUs, including the collections of the BOC.

Pimentel explained that the Constitution envisioned the empowerment of the LGUs, which the bill would help realize by granting them a just share in all forms of national taxes.

He said the bill would amend pertinent provisions of the law to include collections made by the BOC, the value-added tax and excise taxes on imported goods in addition to all national internal revenue taxes collected by the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

The share of the LGUs in the tax collections of the government is in the form of the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA), which Pimentel said is enshrined in the Constitution and mandated by Republic Act No. 7160 otherwise known as the Local Government Code of 1991.

He argued that the local officials would be encouraged to take an active role in going after smugglers in their areas of responsibility once they realize that their shares from national taxes would increase because tax collections are done efficiently.

Only NFA

The National Food Authority (NFA) should be the only entity allowed by the government to import rice to avoid smuggling, a lawmaker and former NFA chief said.

Northern Samar Rep. Emil Ong, who was NFA administrator during the term of the late President Corazon Aquino, said such a move would make it much easier for authorities to check rice arriving in the country’s ports to determine whether they are government imports or smuggled. – With Evelyn Macairan, Aie Balagtas See, Marvin Sy, Czeriza Valencia, Paolo Romero, Eva Visperas