Customs execs get threats

A group claiming to be members of the Alex Boncayao Brigade (ABB) warned yesterday Customs authorities at the Port of Manila (POM) "that their days are numbered" if they do not share with them part of the revenue collections of the Bureau of Customs.

"We demand revolutionary tax from you," said the callers to Customs officials with a warning that if they failed to oblige with their demand, they would suffer the same fate of those who refused them.

POM District Collector Napoleon Morales reported that he has received calls from unidentified persons instructing him to go to a place in the Customs zones with a bag of money which he would leave in a designated area as part of his contribution to the revolutionary tax.

The same demand was received by several Customs officials urging them under threats of liquidation by the ABB if they do not comply as instructed. The calls were made early yesterday morning.

Customs Commissioner Antonio Bernardo, who was in a budget hearing in Congress the whole day, downplayed the threats. But he advised those who received the threats to take precautionary measures.

"We take every threat seriously," Bernardo said, adding that the twin incidents of ambush last July on Customs officials in Cebu and Manila are lessons that "we should not let our guards down."

Morales said that the unidentified callers could be the work of extortionists who were out to make a fast buck. But then, he said that he was not taking the threats lightly as he doubled his security.

It should be recalled hat last July 27, MICP District Collector Felipe Bartolome was wounded in an ambush at the Anda Circle in Port Area by unidentified persons. His driver was killed as a result of the incident.

The ambush followed after Bartolome received a death threat from an unidentified caller. – Rey Arquiza