How come Malacañang and the Department of Finance are unusually silent over the disappearance of 1,900 container vans? The case is now under investigation at the House of Representatives.
This is the first time a huge number of containers “disappeared” while in the care of the Bureau of Customs.
The contents of the container vans, mostly consumable items like food, would have fetched the government hundreds of millions of pesos in taxes and duties.
If it happened in previous administrations, there would have been much ado over the missing containers.
Customs bigwigs would have been made to account for the loss of a huge amount of revenues.
By now, charges would have been filed against customs officials and employees involved in the disappearance if it happened during the time of Fidel V. Ramos.
But the Palace and the finance department do not seem interested in recovering the missing containers.
Neither are they interested in holding those responsible for the theft.
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All Customs Commissioner Lito Alvarez could say about the disappearance of the cargoes is that it was he who made the discovery.
He had discovered the theft too late because by then, 1,900 containers had been lost.
If he were not sleeping on the job, he could have discovered the theft earlier.
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Alvarez said he had ordered Joey Yuchongco, customs intelligence chief, to find out what happened to the cargoes.
Susmaryosep! Why Yuchongco of all people when he could have prevented the theft in the first place?
Why not ask an outside agency, like the National Bureau of Investigation or the police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, to conduct the investigation?
The answer is obvious: The investigation is just a moro-moro (charade).