MANILA, Philippines—A public hearing by the House committee on good government has uncovered an alleged multimillion extortion racket by operatives of the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG) preying on importers.

Agapito Mendez, president of the Professional Customs Brokers of the Philippines (PCBAPI), told the committee that for importers the letters PASG stood for ``Philippine Abu Sayyaf Group’’ because its agents took their cargoes hostage and demanded ransom for their release, just like the notorious kidnappers in the South.

Mendez said the PASG operatives would hold their container vans and delay their release until the importers paid up to P20,000 for every 20-footer and P40,000 per 40-footer. He said the PASG men provide official receipts for half of the amount the importers pay, claiming the rest was meant to ``beef up tax collections.’’

With thousands of container vans passing through the international ports every day, Mendez said this PASG racket could easily yield millions of pesos in extortion money every month.

Mendez tagged two PASG operatives, a certain Sergeant Cabiles and Rodriguez, as the leaders of the alleged racket in Dagat-dagatan in Caloocan City and San Marcelino in Manila.

Albay Rep. Al Francis Bichara corroborated the testimony of Mendez. He claimed that the PASG special unit operating out of Cagayan de Oro led by a certain Mohammad Bong Aquia has the same modus operandi.

Bichara related that this PASG unit had intercepted 159 vehicles being smuggled into Mindanao. Aquia allegedly collected P30,000 for each vehicle to facilitate the release of all units except for five that were applied warrants of seizure and detention.
PASG Assistant Secretary Danilo Manguila and lawyer Edmund Arugay made only feeble replies during the hearing to the accusations against its men, promising to look deeper into the allegations.

The two also admitted that the PASG had deployed civilian agents to do their work on a voluntary capacity. But while they were given official IDs of PASG, they were not given proper training on their work.

Arugay disclosed that the agents included 40 officers of the Philippine National Police, four officers of the Philippine Coast Guard, two from the National Food Authority, four from the Maritime Industry Authority, three from the Bureau of Customs, and several military officers.

Bichara said that tapping civilians to conduct anti-smuggling operations was prone to abuse because there was no accountability and the system was conducive to extortion activities.

“The PASG has become a breeding ground for crooked and dishonest government officials and employees,” said Bichara.

He also doubted that the PASG agents were well-versed in the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines since most of them did not undergo the required seminars.

Bichara said that the PASG should be abolished since it merely duplicates the work of the customs bureau and that the PASG was not even authorized by Congress to collect taxes and duties.

PASG’s creation under Executive Order 624 was illegal, Bichara said, because the President was not empowered to make laws like allowing the PASG to be a collection agency.