BOC files 122 cases vs smugglers

MANILA, Philippines–The Bureau of Customs has filed a total of 122 smuggling cases against traders and brokers behind the illegal importation of more than P60 billion worth of goods from various parts of the world, according to the BOC public information division.

In a statement, the BOC on Wednesday quoted Customs Deputy Commissioner Peter Manzano as saying that “in line with BOC Commissioner Ruffy Biazon’s intensified anti-smuggling campaign, we will never waiver in our thrust to sue all those involved in smuggling.”

Manzano, also head of the Department of Finance-attached agency’s Run After the Smugglers, or RATS program, named 31 officers of four Central Luzon-based multipurpose cooperatives as respondents in the latest smuggling case they filed with the Department of Justice.

The four cooperatives–the Kapatirang Takusa Multipurpose Cooperative, Ugnayan Magbubukid ng San Isidro Cooperative and the Samahang Magsasakang Kapampangan at Katagalogan Mutlipurpose Cooperative, all based in Pampanga province; and the Bulacan-based Concerned Citizens Multipurpose Cooperative–were behind the smuggling of some 78,000 bags of rice from Vietnam through the Legazpi City port in Albay, said the BOC.

The illegal rice shipment, estimated to be worth P96.5 million, “did not have the required import permits in violation of the Tariffs and Customs Code of the Philippines” when it arrived at the Bicol port on Sept. 22.

“Moreover, the bags of rice that were illegally brought into the country by the four cooperatives were all beyond the balances of their imported rice quota allocation,” the BOC also said.

For his part, Biazon said they would “never allow any multipurpose cooperative to exploit their rice importation allocation privileges for illegal activities.”

“We will carefully review the entries of all rice importations to ensure that these are covered by the required permits and importation quota allocations are not violated,” he also said.

The BOC chief asserted “while we support the cause of cooperatives, we will, however, strictly enforce the country’s customs laws.”

According to Biazon, the bureau has “not run out of smuggling cases to file with the courts.”

However, only one case has resulted in a conviction, he pointed out.

He expressed serious concern over the “big number of cases pending in the judicial system, which affects the credibility of the RATS program’ success rate.”

“We’d like to see more convictions,” Biazon said, adding they “plan to have an enhanced coordination with the judiciary and follow up the pending smuggling cases.”

Sometime in mid-July last year, businessman Danilo Villar, owner of Vill Gay Forwarding Services, and his broker, Danilo Opiniano, were found guilty by a Manila regional trial court of violating provisions of the Tariffs and Customs Code.

Villar and Opiniano were sentenced to jail terms of eight to nine years.

Biazon had cited the conviction of Villar and Opiniano, said it had “encouraged us to strive even more in the fight against smuggling…We will spare no one in our campaign against smuggling.”