More than a week after President Aquino announced he had picked a new customs commissioner, outgoing Bureau of Customs (BoC) chief Angelito Alvarez apparently isn’t packing up just yet.
Alvarez on Thursday filed a P4.1-billion smuggling case against a senior executive and two brokers of an oil company for allegedly failing to pay the correct amount of duties on oil products it imported over a 12-month period beginning June last year.
In what could be his valedictory act, Alvarez led a BoC team that filed in the justice department a criminal complaint against Jetti Petroleum Inc. president Joselito Tibayan Magalona, broker and attorney in fact Darwin Suico and broker Dario Amolata.
Ten days ago, Aquino announced he had decided on a new BoC chief to replace Alvarez, saying he was “not happy” with the latter. The President has yet to publicly name Alvarez’s successor. The latter, the President said, asked for private time with his family until September 15.
At a news briefing, Alvarez said he would continue to fulfill his duties as BoC chief “until the President tells me my time is up.”
“Anytime he tells me that my time is up, I will relinquish my post to my successor in a very professional manner,” he said.
6th oil firm
Efforts of the Inquirer to contact Jetti Petroleum were unavailing. Repeated calls to Magalona were not answered.
According to Alvarez, the technical smuggling case against Jetti was the sixth criminal complaint he has filed against oil firms suspected of illegally importing petroleum products.
Alvarez said the BoC had filed similar cases against Pilipinas Shell Corp., Phoenix Petroleum Corp., Cross Country Oil and Petroleum Corp., Oil Link Corp. and Filpride Resources Inc.
“In a span of just 15 months, we have filed smuggling cases against six of the country’s top 11 oil importers,” Alvarez said.
Major supplier
Jetti was a major supplier of fuels and other oil products to industries and transport terminals in 1998. It has since put up small gas stations nationwide.
Aside from its 46-million-liter bulk terminal in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental province, Alvarez said Jetti ran numerous company-operated and dealer-owned gas stations in Mindanao, making it among the primary oil suppliers in the region.
“However, the BoC’s Run after the Smugglers (RATS) team had found documented proofs that Jetti’s growth and expansion were partly achieved through the use of several schemes of deception that had deprived the government of much-needed revenues,” Alvarez claimed.
No inspections
From June 2010 until June this year, Alvarez said Jetti imported various oil products worth P4.1 billion from Singapore.
Although the imported goods did not undergo “load and discharge port survey inspections” by any of the six government-accredited auditors, Alvarez said the items were allowed by some erring customs personnel to be unloaded from the subport of Mindanao International Terminal in Tagoloan.
Of the 49 import entries, Alvarez claimed that only four passed the strict guidelines set by the BoC for oil shipments.
Connivance
“It was clear that Jetti could not have succeeded in pulling off this caper without the connivance and indispensable cooperation of corrupt customs officials and employees,” Alvarez said.
According to him, Jetti failed to file within the prescribed 30-day period the import entries for the P1.1 billion worth of oil products it brought into the country from Sept. 28, 2010, to May 16 this year.
“Existing regulations require that those shipments involving a total of 15 import entries should have been deemed abandoned in favor of the government,” Alvarez said.
Previous importations
Alvarez said Jetti’s importation of another P2.9 billion worth of oil products covered by 30 import entries also skirted inspection.
In addition, the customs commissioner alleged the oil firm evaded the payment of close to P11.7 million in tax duties.
“Jetti’s various sins and circumvention of customs rules and regulations gave the (BoC) sufficient justification to legally claim restitution in the amount of P4.1 billion, which represents the total value of the fraudulent shipments,” Deputy Customs Commissioner Gregorio Chavez said.
Alvarez has directed the BoC’s Post Entry Audit Group to “check all previous importations of Jetti to determine if the same modus operandi was used by the company in the past.”