BOC to issue rules on 'controlled' contraband delivery

MANILA, Philippines - To prevent a repeat of last week’s snafu at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) wherein Bureau of Customs agents mistakenly arrested a German agent posing as a drug trafficker, the BOC will soon issue guidelines on “controlled delivery” of contraband.

Agents of the BOC-Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) under director Filomeno Vicencio Jr. almost bungled an entrapment operation that the Philippine Drug Enforcement Group (PDEA) and the Customs Investigation Office-Frankfurt Department of Drugs in Germany took two years to plan.

Morales said he already gave instructions for the BOC to create new rules that would help their agents identify whether imported shipments are legal or illegal.

“Under the proposed guidelines, appropriate measures will be put in place to ensure that the procedures on the (controlled delivery) operation are well-coordinated and the people on the ground are properly informed,” he added.

The BOC chief also said he has no plans of imposing sanctions on Vicencio and would leave the matter up to Malacañang “because he (Vicencio) is a presidential appointee.”

“Our jobs in Customs are highly technical so we have to clearly define what is a controlled delivery in the first place. He (Vicencio) is new in the bureau, he may not be aware of (such operations),” Morales said.

He admitted there was a “miscommunication” between some CIIS officials that led to the lapses in the anti-drug operation.

The German agent, who was posing as a drug trafficker, arrived at the NAIA at around 5 p.m. last Nov. 11 allegedly carrying cocaine. He was supposed to conduct a “door-to-door delivery” of the prohibited substance to an address in Metro Manila.

The PDEA and German Customs reportedly agreed that since it was a “controlled delivery” the law enforcers would allow him to pass through, but BOC agents exposed him and his mission when they arrested him at the airport. He was later turned over to the PDEA when it was found that he was in the country to take part in an entrapment operation.

Insiders at the BOC earlier said the agency was “put in a bad light” because of the bungled operation. “The German Customs even described that the Customs in the Philippines was ‘lousy,’” they said.

But the source said they could not blame their German counterparts for criticizing the BOC. “It was a government-to-government operation that would have gone smoothly if one of the agency officials did not expose the operation prematurely. The German agent had papers that legalized him carrying the cocaine.”