Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence Danilo Lim on Monday warned those transacting business at the Bureau of Customs not to give “tara” or bribes to persons dropping his name.
This after customs police arrested last week two individuals at the Manila International Container Port in the act of soliciting “tara” using Lim’s name.
“Let it be public knowledge that I neither asked for tara nor appointed anyone to solicit it for myself or for my office,” Lim said in a statement.
He said he received information that individuals were soliciting bribes in his name, and “some of it was already earmarked for pickup by my representative.”
“To all concerned, beware. Bribery is a crime. All other related crimes that are a result of bribery have corresponding severe penalties under the Revised Penal Code of the Philippines (RPCP),” Lim said.
“This authority will not hesitate to seek the harshest penalty under the RPCP, if conditions call for it and are necessary,” he added.
Lim, a bemedalled former Army Scout Rangers commander, was instructed by President Benigno Aquino III to clean up the notoriously corrupt customs service. He was a leader of various military uprisings in the first Aquino administration and the Arroyo administration. Philip C. Tubeza