Oil and sugar smuggling still going on?

With gasoline at an all-time high, thanks to the Libyan crisis, whatever economic gains we may have had in the past few months will surely go to naught. But last Saturday, I was quite surprised that the nightspots in Metro Cebu were bustling with business and traffic was heavy in many areas which only tells you that business was brisk despite the fuel crisis. Of course all this is happening despite the fact that diesel fuel in Cebu now cost upwards of P47 per liter and gasoline at P57.70 per liter.

In the old days, when gasoline prices went up, Cebu City on Saturday night would be a ghost town! How things have changed in Metro Cebu these days and we can attribute this to the fact that a huge number of our workers now work in call centers, which continues to operate even in the wee hours making Cebu truly a city that never sleeps. Perhaps a lot of Cebuanos are still in a denial mode… that the fuel prices are so high only now, they must think that all this is temporary. But it looks like those prices would stay.

I’d like to believe that by now, fuel in Metro Manila should be less than P10 per liter as compared to the pump prices in Metro Cebu. Thanks to the unabated smuggling of bunker oil in the ports of Subic or the Port of Manila. In fact, we read in a news report that last Jan. 17, Customs officials caught the M/T Chelsea Enterprise transferring fuel to the M/T China Venture, which the report said cost some P60 million bucks! The crew of the M/T Chelsea Enterprise had no documents to show that the fuel that they pumped into the M/T China Venture had paid taxes and duties. Now whatever happened to this incident?

I also got a lot of emails that suggested that the owner of the vessels and the importer of that fuel had been doing some kind of damage control, even suppressing this news in the media. Of course we won’t mention their names. But since the Bureau of Customs (BoC) already had an official report of this case in their website, what we’d like to know is, whether or not Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez is pursuing this case, especially that the stories coming out from the Internet is that these smugglers were known P-Noy supporters? I would like to believe that Mr. Alvarez would hopefully pursue this case vigorously, regardless of who gets implicated.

It seems that the BoC’s “Run After the Smugglers” (RATS) Program team caught these oil smugglers red-handed. So what we’d like to know is where exactly is this case right now? The problem in this country is that when the news is a hot item, everyone gets to read it… but when things die down… someone comes in and settles this case very quietly, just like what usually happens in the good ol’ days.

We certainly hope that the P-Noy administration would use this particular incident to show to our nation that they would pursue and prosecute all violators, especially oil smugglers regardless of who they are, whether they are P-Noy supporters or not! To date Cebuanos continue to suffer from high fuel prices because oil smugglers that had a heyday in the previous administration are still running amuck even under the P-Noy administration.

Still on the issue of smuggling, President Aquino was in Bacolod City last Friday for an Economic Forum at the L’Fisher Hotel which was attended by some 300 businessmen from Negros Occidental. Smuggling was among the many topics that were discussed, from the bio-fuels industry to a shift to a nuclear power plant, including the President’s suggestion to create a Water Resource Commission to streamline the water resources management in Negros Occidental.

Later the President met up with six sugar planters including the heads of the three big sugar federations… notably the National Federation of Sugar Planters led by Nene Roxas, the Confederation of Sugar Planters led by Raymund Montinola and the United Federation of Sugar Planters led by Manolete Lamata in a luncheon held at the Provincial Capitol hosted by Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Maranon Jr. In that luncheon, the sugar planters complained to the President about the sugar smuggling happening in Cebu… something that I’ve already heard of, but I cannot yet write on it until I get a clearer picture.

My source tells me that the President already knew about the smuggling and told them that he wasn’t happy about his Customs officials. Now which non-performing Customs official is on the mind of the President? Could it be that he is not happy with Customs Chief Angelito Alvarez? With oil smuggling still going on unabated and the BoC not meeting its targets, I would like to believe that P-Noy would chop off some heads in the BoC. Now didn’t we warn the President when he first appointed Alvarez to the BoC about the golf infraction he did at the Ayala Alabang? Abangan!

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