Misuari in cahoots with smugglers?

COTABATO CITY – Career employees of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao have urged Malacañang to order a deeper probe on smuggling activities at Maguindanao’s Polloc Port, hinting that operations of syndicates worsened after former Gov. Nur Misuari’s office assumed control of the international seaport.

The appeal was aired a day after joint elements of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division and the 603rd Brigade intercepted what military probers described as a "highly questionable" shipment of 40 container vans of imported rice at the Polloc Port.

"That volume of rice is nothing compared to those that were unloaded at the Port in previous shipments," said a key technical staffer of the Office of the Regional Governor.

Another source, also a career ARMM employee, or one whose appointment is permanent in status and covered by civil service laws, said they are convinced that Misuari and some of his loyal followers could have connived with the smugglers using the port as transshipment point for their merchandise.

Gen. Raul Relano, 6th ID’s deputy commander, said the seized rice shipment, believed to have come from Vietnam, is now guarded by two platoons of soldiers while verification of its legality is underway.

Luciano Millan Jr. of Malacañang’s Anti-Smuggling Task Force arrived here Friday to help in the investigation. Millan said local officials would be asked to explain why the shipment, in 20-footer vans, had been unloaded at the Polloc Port without being noticed.

Millan also questioned the absence of any employee of the Bureau of Customs at the port, Central Mindanao’s major transshipment point.

Millan said they are now initiating contact, through the 6th ID and the 603rd Brigade, with the consignee of the shipment.

Probers declined to divulge the identity of the consignee in the meantime.

He said if the consignee will not show up, the government will initiate legal procedures for of disposing of the 40 vans of imported rice.

Maj. Julieto Ando, 6th ID’s spokesman, said each of the vans contained 420 bags of rice, each weighing 50 kilos.

Last year, the defunct Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force also intercepted at the Polloc Port a ferry laden with 180,000 bags of imported rice.

Polloc Port, which is under the jurisdiction of the regional government of the ARMM, has long been subject of controversy due to the reported "wanton" use of the facility by big smuggling syndicates as key entry point to mainland Mindanao.

The port is less than five kilometers away from the regional headquarters of the ARMM police, and can even be seen from atop a hill where the camp’s club house is located.

Last year, Maguindanao’s police command, then under Supt. Abubakar Mangelen, seized 15 vans of illegally-cut lumber ready for shipment from Polloc Port to two destinations in Visayas.