Customs official blamed for P6-B shabu shipment ‘nowhere to be found’

The Bureau of Customs (BOC) official who allegedly failed to mark the shipment of P6.25 billion worth of shabu as contraband in the BOC’s system is “nowhere to be found,” Customs chief Nicanor Faeldon said on Monday.

Larribert Hilario is the BOC’s risk management officer who failed to encode the data in the BOC’s system that the shipment contained illegal drugs. He was ordered suspended since the May 26 raid on two separate Valenzuela City warehouses where the drugs were stored.

“Since we suspended him, we cannot contact and locate him. He’s nowhere to be found,” Faeldon said during a Senate blue ribbon committee hearing on the BOC’s alleged hand in the shipment of 605 kilograms of shabu from China into the country.

National Bureau of Investigation personnel display hundreds of plastic bags containing kilos of shabu, part of a P5-billion shipment seized from a warehouse in Valenzuela City, on Friday based on a tip from Chinese authorities. —MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

Asked by Committee chairman Senator Richard Gordon and Senator Panfilo Lacson on Hilario’s whereabouts, Faeldon said they could no longer contact Hilario since his suspension from office.

But Faeldon, a former Magdalo soldier, said he will take full responsibility for every amount of shabu that will enter the country.

“All those shabus we apprehended and failed to apprehend, that’s my responsibility,” he said.

Meanwhile, Lacson questioned the BOC why it allowed the consignee EMT Trading put the shipment on the BOC’s “green lane.”

As part of the BOC’s selectivity system, products imported to the country pass through four lanes. The blue lane or the “super green lane” allows products to pass through with minimal inspection. These will only undergo a cross auditing by the BOC as these came from reputable companies. Products on the green lane, on the other hand, will no longer pass through inspection and document verification. On the yellow lane, products will go through document verification. If the products are selected to go through the red lane, these will go through two kinds of inspection: Intrusive inspection, or the products will be opened and checked; and X-Ray inspection.

The shipment from China, metal cylinders containing shabu in hundreds of plastic bags, had been selected to pass through the green lane.

EMT Trading owner Eirene Mae Agustino Tatad and customs broker Teejay Marcellana have yet to explain the matter.

The hearing is still ongoing as of posting time. JE/rga