MANILA, Philippines—Whoever replaces Angelito Alvarez as chief of the customs bureau should monitor the so-called “reunions” among corrupt officials and employees every Friday at 3 p.m. at the Port Area, Senator Panfilo Lacson said Tuesday.
Only when this notorious group is finally dissolved can any customs commissioner declare that the agency is indeed corruption-free, the senator said.
Lacson said it was an open secret among customs insiders that corrupt honchos and workers of the bureau meet “somewhere in the pier” to collect their share of bribes given by unscrupulous businessmen who want to expedite the release of their imports.
“This is the reason why it is difficult to get in touch with most customs officials on Fridays,” he said.
“There is hardly any contact with the outside world on Fridays because of the reunions. All roads lead to the pier just so they can collect their share in this institutionalized corruption,” the senator added. “That’s why I would only be convinced that the BOC chief, whoever he may be, is really effective if this group ceases to exist, because this is an open secret. Ask anyone.”
Lacson said he was not making a condemnation of everyone employed at the BOC. “When I say institutionalized, it is not necessarily 100 percent of the work force,” he said.
He would not specify how the bribes were divided among customs officials. However, Lacson said he got an update that “package deals” in which importers used to be charged P350,000 for each container that left the port area without an inspection “can now go down to as low as P150,000.”
“The point is to avoid an inspection and for the container van to leave as quickly as possible. This is how shabu and firearms enter the country,” he said.
The most popular smuggled items according to his research are rice, sugar and resins, Lacson said.
Lacson also dismissed sporadic accomplishment reports released to media where the BOC announces seized shipments.
“Why don’t they declare the shipments that they refuse to confiscate, because that’s the bigger story,” he said.
“Do you realize how many containers enter the ports of the entire country in a day? About two to three thousand containers! If the corrupt people earn P5,000, or even just P2,000 for each container, imagine how many zeroes those add up to,” Lacson added.
The senator added that one of the issues that Alvarez’s replacement should investigate right away is why goods coming to Manila use Batangas as a transshipment point.
“Transshipment is necessary when the goods are transferred a good distance from one point to another. But Manila to Batangas? What’s the point?” he said.
There are suspicions that BOC-issued transshipment permits have become a legal cover for smuggling. This surfaced after a team organized by Alvarez noticed that only P3.7 million was paid in duties and taxes from parties that imported 188 of 790 containers granted such permits last year. Meanwhile, 3,656 transshipped containers could not be accounted for.