Feuding Customs execs ‘smoked peace pipe’

Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence Jesse Dellosa. AFP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Commissioner John Phillip Sevilla is “unperturbed” by the reported feud between the Bureau of Customs’ Intelligence Group (IG) and Enforcement Group (EG), each of which had accused the other of corruption, according to the head of the agency’s public information and assistance division.

Charo Logarta-Lagamon over the weekend confirmed the bad blood between Deputy Commissioners Jessie Dellosa and Ariel Nepomuceno of the IG and EG, respectively.

The two, however, had “resolved their differences,” Lagamon told the Inquirer.

Last week, Dellosa, a former chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, and Nepomuceno “met and settled the issues” involving their respective offices.

“They are both intelligent, hence, they may differ in opinions and work styles, but they are aligned to one goal—to make the Bureau of Customs work for our people and country,” Lagamon, a former broadcast journalist, said.

Another customs official said Dellosa and Nepomuceno had “smoked the peace pipe” and had “entered into a gentleman’s agreement” to refrain from talking to the media and other outsiders about the controversy.

The alleged animosity between the two men and their offices started when a Lamberto Lopez filed a graft complaint with the Ombudsman against two IG personnel.

Lopez represented himself as an administrative officer of the Cebu City-based firm 88 Circle Trading whose shipments of GI wire from China had been held at the Port of Cebu pursuant to an alert order issued by the Intelligence Group.

In an affidavit, copies of which were given to media by Enforcement Group personnel, Lopez said he gave P450,000 in cash to IG staffer Charvis Cinches during a meeting at the Midas Hotel on Roxas Boulevard in exchange for the release of the shipments.

The shipments, however, were not released, prompting Lopez to file the graft case.

Cinches, said to be a former chief of the Cagayan de Oro City unit of the defunct Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG), did not respond to a request for an interview.

A check with the BOC showed the Department of Finance’s Office of Revenue Agency Modernization was his mother unit but he was recently detailed to the IG on orders of Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima.

Lopez later recanted his complaint, saying he was paid to file it by a Geni Agco, who in turn supposedly took his orders from Jeff Patawaran, a consultant to Nepomuceno.

Patawaran, who once served as chief of staff of former PASG chief Antonio Villar, and Nepomuceno have yet to comment.

Both Dellosa and Roberto Almadin, head of the Cebu collection district, have denied their offices were involved in the alleged anomaly.

Dellosa assailed what he called a “demolition job.” He told reporters that “somebody from inside (the BOC) in connivance with people from the outside (importers and brokers)” orchestrated the filing of the graft case to besmirch the IG.

Meanwhile, some customs old-timers who sought anonymity for fear of reprisal assailed Sevilla for “looking the other way instead of ordering an investigation into the controversy.”

IG personnel, for their part, told the Inquirer they wanted to “hit back at the people behind the demolition job, especially their mastermind.”

“But Deputy Commissioner Dellosa has issued specific orders to honor his gentleman’s agreement with Deputy Commissioner Nepomuceno,” one of them said, but added: “This is anything but a closed case, as far as we’re concerned.”