Jamby suggests Lacson head agency to check oil smuggling

Former Senator Jamby Madrigal. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Ruffy Biazon is doing a good job as head of the Bureau of Customs but he needs help, a party mate running for the Senate said.

Former Senator Jamby Madrigal, a Liberal Party member running under the Team PNoy coalition, said Biazon could use the help of former law enforcer and soon-to-be former lawmaker Sen. Panfilo Lacson.

“I think we should have a separate agency to concentrate on oil smuggling; that’s quite a task,” Madrigal told reporters following a Team PNoy provincial campaign trip.

“What I’m saying is Commissioner Biazon has been doing a good job, but I think we should have one agency that is really looking only on oil smuggling or oversight,” she added. “Ping Lacson is a good choice for a separate agency against specific area where smuggling is very rampant.”

Lacson, who claims to have cleaned up the Philippine National Police when he was its director general during the shortlived Estrada administration, is about to wind up his second consecutive term as a senator.

President Benigno Aquino III and Lacson have both said that a job in the executive branch awaits the senator when his term ends in June. Lacson said it was going to be an interesting job that could cause him more enemies, but he did not say what exactly it would be.

“Ping Lacson would be a good choice to counter a lot of areas where corruption is very rampant. The President is being here for almost three years lang, maikli para sugpuin ang lahat ng corruption,” Madrigal said.

Petron chair and CEO Ramon Ang earlier this week said that between P30 billion and P40 billion in government revenues is lost annually as one in every three liters of gasoline and diesel sold in the country is smuggled.

Shell executive Edgar Chua corroborated Ang’s claim,  adding that there are two major ways to smuggle fuel into the country: one is through undervaluation of oil shipments and the other by transferring fuel into local, smaller vessels out at sea.