2 BOC execs suspended over pilfered electronics

MANILA, Philippines – Two officials of the Bureau of Customs were suspended pending an investigation regarding the high-tech electronic goods allegedly pilfered from the BOC’s storage facility at the South Harbor last month.

BOC Commissioner Napoleon Morales has suspended Eric Albano, chief of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) operations section, and his assistant, Mitchell Verdeflor, upon the recommendation of BOC intelligence chief Fernandino Tuason.

Morales also ordered the agency’s Internal Inquiry and Prosecution Division, headed by lawyer Willie Sarmiento, to conduct the investigation.

According to the BOC, some of the items missing from Warehouse 159 at the Port of Manila were 50-inch plasma television sets, cameras, Sony portable playstations, DKNY and Bulgari perfumes, G-shock watches, JVC car stereos, and DVD players.

The missing items are part of a shipment seized by CIIS operatives last Feb. 10.

Albano denied there were items missing from the warehouse, saying they took the items as samples for the case that the BOC would file against the shipment’s consignee.

Morales said under Memorandum Order 7-90, samples should be limited to only one of each kind, and returned immediately after examination. – Helen Flores