Lacson bares names of Customs officials who got bribes from smugglers

Sen. Panfilo Lacson bared on Wednesday the list of Bureau of Customs (BOC) officials who allegedly received bribes from smugglers.

In his privilege speech, Lacson said that the information came from top and middle-level Customs officials and employees, brokers, and a “civic-minded” individual who has been gathering information on the matter “for the longest time.”

“From various sources inside and outside the Customs bureau that I had interacted with over the past two weeks regarding the ‘tara’ list, we carefully vetted and cross-matched each and every information to come up with an objectively filtered and detailed list of who and how much each office or official in the Bureau collects per container per day,” Lacson said.

Recipients of “tara” or payola at the BOC:

• Retired Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon
• Deputy Commissioner Teddy Raval, Intelligence Group (IG)
• Deputy Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno, Enforcement Group (EG)
• Deputy Commissioner Gerardo Gambala, Command Center
• Deputy Commissioner Natalio C. Ecarma III, Revenue Collection Monitoring Group (RCMG)
• Deputy Commissioner Edward James Dy Buco, Assessment and Operations Coordination Group (AOCG)
• Director Neil Estrella, Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service [CIIS] (allegedly also collected for the Office of the Commissioner [OCOMM] together with Chris Bolastig)
• Atty. Zsae de Guzman, chief, Intellectual Property Rights Division
• Atty. Larribert Hilario, Risk Management Office (RMO)
• Joel Pinawin, OIC, Intelligence Division of the BOC (one of the alleged collectors of Director Estrella)
• Director Milo Maestrecampo, Import and Assessment Service (IAS)
• Atty. Grace Malabed, acting chief, Account Management Office (AMO)
• Atty. Alvin H. Ebreo, director, Legal Service under Revenue Collection Monitoring Group (RCMG)
• all section heads, appraisers and examiners in the Formal Entry Division in both the Manila International Container Port (MICP) and Port of Manila (POM)
• Athena Dans, Informal Entry Division, MICP
• all section heads, appraisers and examiners in the Informal Entry Division, POM
• MICP and POM Sections 1, 9, 10, & 15 chief appraiser and examiner
• collector Jet Maronilla, MICP
• collector Rhea Gregorio, POM
• collector Edgar Z. Macabeo, NAIA
• collector Elvira Cruz, Cebu
• collector Maritess Martin, Clark
• collector Mimel Talusan, Subic
• collector Reynaldo M. Galeno, Batangas
• deputy collector Mel Pascual, POM
• Capt. Tikoy Guttierez (deceased), Enforcement and Security Service (MICP)

/atm