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Thursday, January 22, 2004
Mongaya: Seized vehicles
By Anol Mongaya
UNDER the Chinese lunar calendar, we entered the Monkey year at 11 o’clock last night. According to www. chinese fortuneca lendar.com, 2004 is the beginning of the Metal cycle. “It’s the turn of the metal business. Metal stands for gold, jewelry or money. Therefore, financial business will boom in the next two years.” I just hope the Year of the Monkey won’t lead to more monkey business this year.
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Eyebrows were raised when word spread that the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 raided a Mandaue City warehouse and seized 25 luxury right-hand-drive vehicles last Friday.
“Why the silence?” some people asked. The story only came out Monday. Palpak ang amicable settlement, sir?
When the story finally hit the headlines, eyebrows were raised again because NBI 7 identified the wrong broker. Everybody in Customs knows Edwin Reyes earned the ire of Collector Billy Bibit after he joined the brokers’ protest early last year. NBI 7 barked up the wrong tree when it mentioned Reyes as the broker of Pat Jao, who has been in the importation business for decades. The poor broker was still trying to gain back Bibit’s confidence before the Sinulog. Is NBI 7 targeting another scapegoat?
Collector Bibit has cleared his son Jun-jun of any wrongdoing. Unfortunately for him, many sources within the bureau are telling another story. But it will already be difficult to trace the paper trail of the shipment. One thing that immediately cropped up, however, is talk that the vehicles came from Subic.
If only NBI 7 did its homework, it would have known that the key player they identified as the one who facilitated the release of the shipment used a certain broker with initials E.A., with the help of a certain C. C. Di kumpleto ang akong bilib ninyo, sir.
The NBI 7 raid reportedly worsened the rift between Bibit and NBI Director Reynaldo Esmeralda. NBI 7 showed to the public in grand fashion that smuggled luxury vehicles have reached Cebu.
In fairness to the bureau and Bibit, NBI 7 has not yet provided proof that the vehicles passed the local bureau. It is possible they were shipped from Subic on board a barge.
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Vice Gov. John-John Osmena is now facing another controversy involving his alleged granting of P5-million assistance to an allegedly ‘bogus’ foundation.
There are quarters that said the white paper that supposedly exposed this issue came from the camp of Junie Martinez. This is because it will also hit Gov. Pablo Garcia, as many Capitol processes in screening the release of the money apparently bogged down. But friends from Junie’s camp denied prior knowledge of the matter, though its publication pleased them.
Now that it’s political season, it would be good if journalists go the extra mile and leave no stones unturned in covering exposes like this. I am sure there are surprises lurking beneath the obvious. Offhand, I think this has made John-john and Garcia appear as having been duped by a group familiar with Capitol procedures.
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While the attention of Cebuanos were focused on the Sinulog festivities, Cebu City Hall reportedly paid the favored Pasajero Motors Corp. P19.759 million for the six controversial dump trucks. But Mayor Tomas Osmeña is risking the ire of the local media for continuing to refuse to pay radio and tv stations for City Hall ads incurred before his current term.
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I say kudos to former international boxing champion Andy Tabanas for holding his punches when a PUJ driver boxed him because of a traffic altercation. The driver, Francisco Lungay Jr., could have landed in the hospital had Tabanas punched him.
Congratulations also to Troy Ciar, popularly known by Sun.Star Superbalita readers as A.C. Martin, for winning the top prize in the recent Cebu Pop Music Festival.
(e-mail: superbalita@ sunstar.com.ph; text:0917-9761193)
(January 22, 2004 issue)
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