BoC relieves Subic district collector

Customs Commissioner Antonio Bernardo relieved yesterday the district collector of the Subic Freeport following his arrest by the National Bureau of Investigation in an alleged bribery entrapment last Tuesday.

Bernardo designated Andres Salvacion as officer-in-charge at the Subic Freeport, replacing Emerito Villaruz, who was placed on "floating status" at the bureau’s human resource development division.

NBI agents set up the entrapment against Villaruz on the complaint of one Reiner Wermer, who was working on the release of five BMWs from the Subic Freeport.

Villaruz allegedly received P29,000 in marked money supposedly in exchange for the release of the BMWs from NBI agents who posed as Wermer’s business partners.

Villaruz has denied the extortion charges, claiming that it was Wermer who tried to bribe him for refusing to process the documents on the release of the five luxury vehicles.

He said he even asked Wermer to pay directly to the Customs designated government bank after completion of the tax assessment based on blue book value and not on the price that Wermer was allegedly asking for.