|
Friday, September 19, 2003
Customs in Cebu has 100 ‘haoshiao workers’
By Elias O. Baquero
AT least 100 “haoshiao” workers get paid weekly, from P1,000 to P5,000 each, at the Bureau of Customs (BOC) Port of Cebu, although they are not government employees who can be held accountable for what they do.
“Since they are not connected with the government and not accountable to the people, the customs officials who hired them can immediately deny any allegations of illegal transactions,” said lawyer Santiago Maravillas, a former acting district collector at the Cebu port.
Two such “haoshiao” workers now stand accused of murdering deputy collector Eduardo “Wewe” Lao and appraiser Bennett Soreño. One of them retracted his confession yesterday.
Cancelled IDs
Capt. Isidro Estrera, district commander of the Enforcement and Security Service (ESS), said he has cancelled the temporary ID passes of suspects Rustico Fernandez and Juan Jesus Vergel de Dios, after they were dragged into the Lao-Soreño case.
After the ambush last July 24, District Collector Billy Bibit ordered the ESS to strictly impose the “no ID, no entry” rule and screen people coming in and out of the BOC premises.
‘Illegal per se’
Estrera said several division chiefs, including Felix Espino, outgoing chief of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS), submitted requests to grant temporary ID passes to all “haoshiao” personnel working with them.
But apart from these passes, it’s not clear what procedures are used to supervise these informal workers.
Maravillas said the use of “haoshiao” workers is “illegal per se.”
He warned that haoshiao operatives—some of them customs administration graduates and engineers—are being used by unscrupulous customs officials and employees to run errands, such as getting money from customs brokers and importers.
Some of them, Maravillas added, are tapped to be the customs officials’ “eyes and ears” in illegal transactions.
Last week, Capt. Hernando Anonas, chief of the customs police at the Port of Mactan, fired his “haoshiao” secretary for alleged illegal customs brokering.
Anonas said he found out that the woman entered into secret business transactions with some unscrupulous brokers.
Shady deals
According to Maravillas, past customs commissioners had issued several memorandum circulars and personnel orders prohibiting the hiring of haoshiaos.
Several permanent customs employees are becoming irrelevant because their jobs are being performed by haoshiao workers, Maravillas said.
Haoshiao workers are present in different offices of the bureau, including the office of the district collector, operations division, assessment division, wharfinger’s office, CIIS, personnel and the cash division.
They are paid every Friday.
Where does their pay come from?
In some cases, Maravillas said, the regular allowances of haoshiaos come from kickbacks and illegal transactions, known as “SOP” (standard operating procedure) and “Tara” (an illegal private tax).
Maravillas said customs officials can earn up to P100,000 in one transaction, either through value reduction of imported goods or misclassification—one only needs to change the goods’ description from “brand-new” to “used” for the bucks to kick in.
(September 19, 2003 issue)
Write letter to the editor. Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board. Click here.
|
|
[ return
to top ]
[ home
]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
