Pork importer fictitious, yet Customs accredited

The bishopric of Novaliches, Metro Manila, is seeking donations to renovate its Cathedral of the Good Shepherd. But usual generous donors hesitate if the money they give would be diverted – again – to violent aims of Magdalo putschists. Audits don’t normally go with church fundraisers. Devotees rely solely on the bishop’s word of honor. But fresh in the minds of those in Novaliches are Bishop Antonio Tobias’s harboring of escapees who plotted a coup d’etat in Feb., and renting of a house from where still more mutinous soldiers planned to bomb the Batasan in July.

Lt. Lawrence San Juan, one of two escapees who hid for a month in Tobias’s house, has confessed to his misdeeds. Contritely he admitted to reporters that hubris had incited him to ally with communist rebels to bring down the government on the 20th anniversary of the People Power Revolt last Feb. 24. Lt. Patricio Bumidang, one of five Magdalo members arrested in raid at a subdivision beside the Batasan and part of the Novaliches diocese, reportedly is as contrite. Military custodians say he has detailed the fund sources of the Magdalo, including the rental of their hideout with Novaliches diocesan money.

By contrast Tobias is defiant. When confronted with the statements of San Juan and Bumidang, he insisted that giving sanctuary is a clergyman’s duty to crime suspects. Then, when corrected that San Juan was in fact an escaped indictee and that Bumidang’s aborted bombing could have killed many innocents during the President’s State of the Nation, Tobias dared authorities to charge him. And when given moral support by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference president, he declared, "Let the people be my judge."

Authorities, playing politics with the Catholic hierarchy, have not filed charges against Tobias, although they are questioning half a dozen civilian financiers of the coup plot. Devotees, meanwhile, do not judge their bishops with words, but with deeds, like donations.

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The company that brought in four container vans of prohibited raw pork from China appears to be fictitious. Worse, it has been pinpointed in past smuggling attempts. Yet it is duly accredited at the Customs bureau to import Chinese products.

The 100,000 kilos of pork of Asia Golden Ark Marketing was seized in Aug. for breaking the ban on unprocessed Chinese poultry and meat, but disappeared from the Customs chosen private warehouse in Nov. Thieves apparently intended to resell the pork, believed contaminated by foot-and-mouth disease, to longaniza and tocino makers in Pampanga. Part of the loot was in fact recovered from the province Tuesday.

Finance department officials told The STAR that Asia Golden could not be found at its stated business address. Checking BIR records, they said the firm "did not file income tax returns in 2004 or 2005."

Asia Golden is fictitious, they concluded while seeking anonymity. But it had received authority to import fish from China in recent past, counterparts in Customs disclosed.

The pork contraband, conservatively valued at P6 million, was labeled as "frozen mackerel." On inspection, quarantine veterinarians of the Dept. of Agriculture saw only the crates nearest the door of the refrigerated vans to contain fish. The rest were pork in five-kilo cuts, with five to six cuts per box. Sealed and stored at the Sigma Seven Warehouse, designated by Customs chief Napoleon Morales as a special yet free cargo space at the Manila harbor, the contents of the vans subsequently were found stolen.

A consumer group also has exposed Asia Golden to be a smuggler of onions and eggs from China. Retired commodore Ismael Aparri, of the Kilusan ng Mamimili ng Pilipinas Laban sa Kahirapan, denounced to the press last week the illicit sale of import permits by crooks at the Customs and Bureau of Plant Industry.

Aparri said Asia Golden was one of 30 favored importers who bought 400 or so permits this year for P20,000 to P40,000 apiece. The company was also among those that sneaked in eggs from China, similarly banned because of bird flu epidemic.

Local onion growers, and poultry and hog raisers have long been complaining against the importation of cheap but diseases stocks from China. Eggs and chicken infected with bird flu, or meat with foot-and-mouth disease, supposedly will not harm humans if well cooked, but can contaminate livestock farms and thus jeopardize bio-security.

With Asia Golden owners missing, investigators are turning to the registered broker, S.M. Estrada, said to be close to high Customs officials. The NBI has yet to turn in its report on a probe sought by Customs Deputy Commissioner Celso Templo.

Templo, as assistant for enforcement, used to prepare the list of authorized importers based on track record. Upon taking over as Customs head early this year, Morales stripped him of the duty. Morales also formed an anti-smuggling task force headed by an aide, making Templo redundant as deputy with such duty.

Earlier reports stated that Morales resented Templo’s inviting of the NBI to get to the bottom of the pork heist. Templo said he only wanted an "independent and impartial investigation, since everything pointed to an inside job."

An umbrella group of hog raisers meanwhile asked Malacañang to revive a Cabinet-level anti-smuggling committee, and to make the Customs submit to them a list of authorized meat importers and planned imports.

The National Federation of Hog Farmers Inc., which groups 45 associations, complained to Finance Sec. Margarito Teves that the pork smuggling is endangering their P120-billion industry, adjudged the second biggest next to rice.

Federation president Albert Lim Jr. requested that the DA be allowed to link up with the Customs computer network for swifter detection of smuggling, and to designate the group as witness in inspecting contraband.

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A tiff between parents and teachers against administrators is brewing at the Maria Montessori Children’s School in Pasay City, similar to what recently hit the International School in Makati. But unlike at the IS where the parents and teachers fought to retain the headmaster, those in MMCS are complaining about their executive director.

Nine demoralized teachers had resigned in Mar. from the school that supposedly introduced to Manila the individualized learning module. As a result, class sizes have grown 40 percent, with the academic staff stretched to the limit. Parents sought resolution, only to find out that the trustee board had extended the executive director’s tenure by ten years, with advance pay. Of the remaining three-dozen-strong faculty and support staff, 80 percent have told the parents they intend to leave even if no ready jobs await them.

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