Outgoing Senate President Vicente C. Sotto III (Senate PRIB)
MANILA, Philippines — Outgoing Senate President Vicente Sotto III on Tuesday slammed Edsel Batalla of the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) for muddling the Senate report on the rampant smuggling of agricultural products.
Sotto warned that he may be forced to reveal sensitive information divulged by the NICA should Batalla continue to confuse the issue.
The 67-page Senate committee report listed agriculture and customs officials as the supposed protectors of big-time smugglers in the country, including Bureau of Customs (BOC) Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero, BOC Deputy Commissioner Raniel Ramiro, BOC Deputy Commissioner for Revenue Collection and Monitoring Group Vener Baquiran, BOC Director for Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service Geofrey Tacio and Yasser Abbas of the BOC import and assessment division.
—MELVIN GASCON
RELATED STORIES
NICA probing over 20 ‘smugglers,’ government ‘protectors’
Lacson urges NICA: Speed up vetting list of ‘agri smugglers’ and ‘protectors’