A P300-million bribe

Years ago when a container van was listed as lost or missing, customs officials at the Port of Manila, Manila International Container Port and the Office of the Commissioner were frantic looking for it.

That was just one missing or lost container van.

But it’s different now at the Bureau of Customs.

Some 1,900 container vans (not 2,900 as this space reported earlier) were either stolen at the Manila ports or diverted while in transit to the Port of Batangas, and officials don’t seem to give a hoot.

The cargoes were lost over a period of six months—January to June 2011.

This is the first time such a huge volume of cargoes was lost, with the government losing hundreds of millions of pesos in taxes and duties.

Malacañang and the Department of Finance, which is the customs bureau’s mother agency, are unusually mum about the whole thing.

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President Aquino’s injunction to people in government to tread the “daang matuwid (straight and narrow path)” is just mere rhetoric.

If the President were serious about his injunction he would have ordered all customs officials—from Commissioner Lito Alvarez to the collectors of the ports from where cargoes came down to the customs policemen who escorted them—suspended while an investigation is going on at the House of Representatives.

One wonders if P-Noy is sleepwalking.

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There’s a deeper reason for the relief of Batangas port collector Juan Tan than the one given by Commissioner Alvarez, which was the loss of the cargoes.

But how could Tan be made accountable for the disappearance of the 1,900 container vans when they had not reached his port?

Before the discovery of the cargoes’ disappearance, Tan had recommended to Alvarez the prosecution of Shell Corp. for nonpayment of P1.6 billion in taxes and duties on its oil imports.

The P1.6 billion being demanded of Shell was exclusive of interest, surcharges and penalties, according to my customs sources.

The P1.6 billion would have ballooned to P40 billion if interest, surcharges and penalties were demanded of Shell by the customs bureau, the sources said.

One customs official allegedly received a P300-million bribe for sitting on Shell’s delinquent payment of taxes and duties on its oil imports.

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A woman customs official is reportedly urging Alvarez to file a libel case against this columnist for criticizing him over the loss of the 1,900 container vans.

The female official filed an extortion case in court against a broadcaster who used to be her lover.

In answer to the official’s accusation, the broadcaster told the court it was a case of a woman scorned.

He and the official allegedly broke up over the latter’s bedroom habits.