Customs Commissioner John Phillip Sevilla. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines–Customs Commissioner John Phillip Sevilla has ordered an investigation into the disappearance of more than half of the 1,171 sacks of smuggled Malaysian sugar seized earlier by a joint team of Bureau of Customs (BOC) agents and law personnel operatives in Zamboanga City.
Customs Deputy Commissioner for the Intelligence Group Jessie Dellosa is leaving for the southwestern Mindanao city Tuesday along with a team of BOC investigators to look into the case.
Both Sevilla and Dellosa were “not taking this incident sitting down,” according to Charo Logarta-Lagamon, chief of the Public Information and Assistance Division of the BOC, a Department of Finance-attached agency.
Asked to explain
“They have been in touch with (Zamboanga City) Mayor Ma. Isabelle Climaco-Salazar and the bureau’s law-enforcement partners in the area,” Logarta-Lagamon told the Inquirer on Monday.
Another BOC official disclosed that Miguel Saquisami, the agency’s district collector in Zamboanga City, had been “reprimanded by both Sevilla and Dellosa and asked to explain” the missing smuggled sugar.
Castigated by bosses
“He was castigated by the bosses,” said the official, who asked not to be named for lack of authority to speak to the media.
Salazar rushed to the BOC office in Zamboanga City and confronted Saquisami after being told that the BOC had in its custody only 326 sacks of sugar confiscated from the vessel ML Ylaiza Maye V in Barangay (village) Bolong.
An earlier inventory conducted by the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Philippine Coast Guard showed that the total number of sugar sacks seized was 1,171, she noted.
“Now it’s 326. What happened?” asked Salazar, demanding an explanation from Saquisami, who insisted that the number of sacks that his office received from the PNP and the Coast Guard was only 326.
PCG District Commander Jomark Angue, however, denied Saquisami’s claim, maintaining that the command had counted a total of 1,171 sacks of sugar.
Engaged in smuggling
A fuming Salazar told reporters she did not believe the BOC district collector’s explanation and also called for a formal inquiry into the alleged irregularity.
Meanwhile, some BOC insiders alleged that an undisclosed number of customs personnel in the Zamboanga City collection district were “engaged in smuggling activities themselves.”
“The problem in the area is way beyond the BOC,” said another bureau official.
A Customs Intelligence Group operative disclosed that since late last year, they had “made several seizures of smuggled goods in the Zamboanga area,” adding that “huli kami nang huli tapos mawawala lang (we keep on seizing goods only to have them just disappear).”