Customs’ RATS targets Customs men in cahoots with smugglers

Deputy Customs Commissioner for Intelligence Danilo Lim. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Customs’ intensified “Run after the Smugglers,” or RATS campaign will also target an undisclosed number of BOC officials and employees who have been making fortunes by conniving with traders in the illegal importation of goods from various parts of the world.

This was disclosed to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, on Monday, by Customs Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence Danilo Lim, who warned the days of erring bureau personnel, including those “playing deaf and blind” to the illegal practices of smugglers, were numbered.

“Intelligence Group operatives are closely monitoring their activities,” he said, stressing those who have been conniving with smugglers would be targeted and government would ensure that they face the full force of the law.

Lim blamed both erring traders and their BOC personnel-partners in crime for the “rampant and unabated smuggling” at the Department of Finance-attached agency.

In a phone interview, the former Army general claimed “the same people have been giving the Bureau of Customs a bad image.”

But Lim expressed confidence they would eventually win the war against smuggling at the country’s ports.

For the first two and a half months of 2013 alone, the BOC had already seized about P600 million worth of smuggled goods, he noted.

Among the “hot items” confiscated by the BOC Intelligence Group, which Lim heads, was a 2012 model McLaren MP4-12C sports car, estimated to be worth at least P45 million.

The smuggled car, consigned to a certain Edgardo P. Reyes, was seized last week at the Port of Manila.

Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon, who inspected the illegally imported vehicle, opined “some people think they can smuggle cars into the country despite the Supreme Court’s affirmation of Executive Order No. 156 banning the importation of used cars.”

“This will definitely be a very costly experience for them as the bureau would be there 24/7 to seize their hot car importation,” he said in a statement where he also reiterated his warning to importers to “shun earning quick money through smuggling.”

According to Biazon, the smuggled car, among other confiscated imported items, “will be put on the auction block to generate additional revenues for the government.”

The BOC head earlier acknowledged smuggling was “still one of the biggest problems facing the Bureau of Customs.”

However, he said “it’s not true that we are not addressing the problem.”

Biazon put the blame mainly on “about 50 percent of Customs operations still being manually done, as well as antiquated Customs laws.”

He also pointed to the connivance between “corrupt government officials and corrupt businessmen” for the smuggling going on at the country’s ports.

“This connivance occurs because the operating environment allows it to happen with human intervention and abuse of discretion being the principal tools,” he added.

Early this month, the BOC confiscated over P100 million worth of smuggled luxury vehicles and float glass at the Port of Davao and another P100 million worth of fake high-end bags, as well as illegally imported rice and sugar, amounting to P15 million, at the Port of Cebu.