2 Cavite BOC execs under preventive suspension

MANILA, Philippines - The Office of the Ombudsman yesterday issued a preventive suspension order against two officers of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) in Cavite who are facing charges for alleged extortion.

Operation officers Romeo Alicaya and Rodel Arciga of the Gateway Business Park Export Processing Zone in General Trias, Cavite are facing administrative charges for grave misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service. They were suspended for six months without pay.

The cases against them stemmed from a complaint filed by Corazon Drilon, owner of Orange Wined Trading engaged in the scrap material business, with the National Bureau of Investigation’s Cavite district office last month. 

Drilon complained that every time she would pay her customs duties and taxes in the processing zone, Alicaya would demand additional money supposedly “for the boys” or else he would not approve the release of the scrap metals purchased by her company.

The NBI’s Cavite district office eventually caught the two BOC officers in the act of receiving marked money in an entrapment operation.