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Wednesday, September 24, 2003
Missing containers ‘spotted’ near CIP
By Garry Cabotaje/Elias O. Baquero
A NATIONAL Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 team yesterday rushed to a container yard outside the Cebu International Port (CIP) to check a report that the two missing vans were spotted there.
NBI 7 Chief Reynaldo Esmeralda received a report that the two 20-footer container vans, which disappeared from the CIP last Sept. 7, were returned outside the port area.
But Esmeralda, quoting an informant, said the van container numbers (EOLU 883509-2 and EOLU 883388-6) were already covered with paint, apparently to avoid detection.
The two vans, which were reportedly consigned to Tamiya Phils. and Taiyo Yuden, were among the 10 vans of smuggled rice that arrived in Cebu from Singapore last July 18.
Ownership
Six customs brokers are expected to appear at the NBI 7 today to shed light on who owns the 10 container vans, whose seizure was linked to the fatal ambush on customs deputy collector Eduardo “Wewe” Lao.
At the CIP, the NBI 7 found no illegal drugs, except for the smuggled rice with Golden Fish brand, after the remaining container van was opened yesterday.
The van was the last to be opened because the other seven vans were already opened for inspection last week.
It contained about 450 sacks of rice, 270 of which were transferred to the customs warehouse at the CIP.
Esmeralda ordered a full examination of the van and its contents on suspicion that it contained illegal drugs.
Customs Wharfinger Angel Go said that all the seized rice shipments will soon be transferred to the nearby warehouse of the National Food Authority for safekeeping.
Sun.Star called up yesterday afternoon Supervising Agent Rennan Augustus Oliva, NBI 7 team leader, but he said they had not found the two missing vans yet.
Emptied
If indeed the two container vans were returned to the CIP, Esmeralda believes the smugglers already emptied the vans of their contents.
Also, Esmeralda sent a fax message to NBI Director Reynaldo Wycoco last Monday requesting him to allow NBI 7 Executive Officer Nelson Bartolome and Oliva to travel to Singapore for the verification of the shipment documents covering the 10 container vans.
Esmeralda said he wants to find out the real owner of the controversial vans by getting the shipping documents from the port authorities in Singapore.
“The shipping documents are needed to be verified at source (Singapore) since copies on file with the Bureau of Customs are spurious, unreliable and misleading,” read Esmeralda’s letter to Wycoco.
But the NBI 7 chief believes the shipment did not actually come from Singapore but from Vietnam, which has been the source of smuggled rice to Cebu.
If the documents were originally issued in Vietnam, then Bartolome and Oliva can proceed to this rice-producing country, which is just an hour by plane from Singapore, to verify the matter, he said.
(September 24, 2003 issue)
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