Navotas fishing firm accuses BOC of 'cruelty'

A Navotas fishing firm said yesterday the Bureau of Customs (BOC) was being cruel for barring its supply boats from sailing for the past three weeks without any formal charges, a move that reportedly resulted in the sinking of a survey boat off Palawan Thursday after it ran out of fuel.

“This is too much. My men are already dying because of the BOC’s cruelty and wanton display of abuse of authority and excessive power,” said Lope Jimenez, owner of BSJ Fishing and Trading Inc., whose dockyard is at the Navotas Fish Port Complex.

Jimenez said the BSJ’s survey boat, F/V Buena Suerte J-271, vanished on the high seas off Western Palawan with its three crewmembers at about 2:30 a.m. Thursday after they called for assistance from the firm’s mother boat, claiming they were running out of fuel and encountering big waves.

Jimenez said they have already informed the Coast Guard of the incident and their own vessels were also conducting a continued search for the missing boat and its crewmen.

“When the ship’s machinery stops for lack of fuel, it is at high risk of capsizing for it could no longer maneuver, which also puts the lives of its crewmen in peril,” Jimenez said. 

Three weeks ago, BOC and National Bureau of Investigation agents, armed with assault rifles and aided by soldiers, raided the BSJ dockyard at the NFPC and its office in Barangay Tonsuya, Malabon City on suspicion that the firm is engaged in oil smuggling.

Four of the firm’s supply and support boats, a water tanker truck and a fuel tanker truck were seized by the raiding team, led by BOC’s Eric Albano.

Soldiers are still guarding the vessels and the BSJ office.

Last Saturday, or three weeks after the boats and trucks seizure, the BOC served its warrant of seizure and detention (WSD) for the four vessels and the two tanker trucks, which reportedly contained 1.8 million liters of questionable diesel fuel.

The warrant, however, was not received by the BSJ because its office is closed on Saturdays.

BSJ lawyer Mario Aguinaldo questioned the delay of the filing of charges against the fishing firm. “If indeed it was a legitimate action to enforce the law, what is taking them so long in filing a case against BSJ?” he told The STAR in a phone interview.

Aguinaldo urged the BOC to “act with dispatch for the lives of the fishing vessels’ crewmen are at stake.”

New evidence

Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales said yesterday new evidence has surfaced against BSJ.

Morales said oil samples seized from the firm during the raid conducted last Sept. 2 were found to have contain .30 percent sulfur, “way beyond the allowable limit of .05 percent” under the Clean Air Act.

The BSJ filed charges against the raiding officers from the BOC and the NBI before the office of Malabon first assistant city prosecutor Magno Pablo Jr. for alleged illegal actions committed during the raid, which has reportedly cost the firm P15 million in losses.

The BSJ said the BOC used excessive force during the conduct of their raid even as it claimed that their diesel was locally acquired from Petron.

Morales, however, said the raid on several vessels suspected of illegally importing fuel was legal and no excessive force was used during the operation.

He doubts the oil came from Petron because the oil giant is a reputable company and furnished the BOC with documents to prove the oil they sold BSJ was within the limits prescribed by the energy department, he said.

Morales said that initial sounding indicated that around 1.8 million liters of oil seized from BSJ would reach P90 million if sold in the local market. – With Helen Flores