Customs execs pass the buck over theft of 2 container vans

CEBU CITY — The buck-passing has started at the Bureau of Customs following the theft of two container vans containing smuggled rice from the Cebu International Port.

Rustico Fernandez, an errand boy at the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) who confessed to his involvement in the theft of the two vans, told the NBI, which has him in custody, that the head of the CIIS himself allegedly knew of the plan to spirit out the vans.

The vans are part of a 10-van shipment of rice smuggled from Singapore and seized by Customs.

The plan was allegedly to spirit out the entire shipment of 10 vans.

CIIS head Felix Espino admitted having learned of the plan to spirit out the vans but said it did not mean he was part of it.

Instead, he blamed other Customs officials like Customs collector Billy Bibit and Customs police commander Isidro Estrera for sitting for a month on his memorandum requesting the transfer of the vans to a warehouse of the National Food Authority (NFA) for safekeeping.

Bibit was outraged, saying Espino had better retire if he cannot do his job.

"Dapat mag-retire na siya (He should retire). He is not doing his job. Ang bastos nila. Kumukulo ang dugo ko sa kanila. Hindi ko asset si Loloy (Fernandez). Driver yan ni Espino (They are so brazen. They make my blood boil. Loloy is not my man; he’s Espino’s driver)," he said.

Bibit also blamed the loss of the two vans on Oriental Port and Allied Services Corp. (Opascor), the sole foreign cargo handler at the Cebu International Port, saying nothing moves at the CIP without its knowledge.

Two Opascor employees — reach stacker operator Arnold Glodove and transtainer operator Arnel Ondoy — have emerged as witnesses in the NBI investigation, saying they helped facilitate the spiriting out of the two vans for a fee.

Glodove and Ondoy pointed to Fernandez as the one who allegedly brokered their participation in the plan to steal the entire 10-van shipment.

They also volunteered information to the NBI that they had information that the recent ambush-slaying of Customs deputy collector Eduardo Lao and examiner Bennet Soreno was tied to the seizure of the smuggled rice shipment.

NBI regional director Reynaldo Esmeralda said Fernandez admitted having brokered the theft of the two vans last Sept. 7.

Fernandez told the NBI that the members of the Customs police were the ones who tapped his services to scout around for people willing to help spirit out the vans.

The Customs policemen allegedly introduced Fernandez to brothers Wendell and Bobby de la Fuente, the alleged bagmen who later paid Glodove P10,000 and Ondoy P5,000 for loading the two vans onto a designated truck.

Esmeralda declined to name the Customs police officers.

Fernandez later revealed the plan to Espino who, in turn, alerted Bibit and Estrera.

Esmeralda said he is summoning Espino today to shed light on what he really knows about the plan and why the plan succeeded despite his knowledge.

Estrera will similarly be summoned today.

Esmeralda apparently did not know Espino had already passed the buck to Bibit and Estrera who Espino said did not act on his request to transfer the vans for a month.

When Bibit finally ordered the transfer of the vans to the NFA warehouse last Sept. 8, it was already too late. Two of the vans, containing about 800 bags of rice each, had disappeared.

Bibit said Fernandez should also be thoroughly investigated on what he really knows.

Bristling with anger, Bibit said: "There are now insinuations na ako ang nagpalabas niyan. Wala akong kinalaman diyan. Hindi ko nga kilala yan... Ang kapal ng mukha nila (There are now insinuations that I was the one who had the vans spirited out. I had no hand in that. I don’t even know him... How brazen can they get)." — Freeman News Service