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Thursday, August 11, 2005
Espinoza: CIDG men should be commended, not condemned
By Elias L. Espinoza
BASELESS. The furor of Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña over the seizure of a right-hand-drive (RHD) Toyota MRS Sedan 2004 from the shop of Russ Jao is not only baseless, but also uncalled for.
For the city mayor to declare that the operation was a form of extortion is not only unfair to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and the police. It’s casting aspersions on law enforcement agencies.
Judging by the way he talks, the mayor appears to be a friend of Jao since he takes the cudgels for allegedly erring businessmen, not the CIDG or the police who enforce the laws.
As the chief executive of a premier city, Osmeña should have commended the CIDG for apprehending the vehicle, which apparently eluded customs authorities for some reasons or another.
The city mayor should be circumspect in his public pronouncement over the issue since the CIDG’s operation was authorized by a search warrant, duly issued by the court.
Enforcement of laws is the job of the police, not the mayor’s. Even customs authorities cannot enforce the Customs and Tariff Code outside the port zones and custom-bonded warehouses.
The police or the CIDG personnel deserve commendation, not condemnation, for helping customs authorities in apprehending the RHD vehicle.
Even worse is the acerbic reaction of Cebu Port Customs Collector Lourdes Mangaoang, who threatened to sue the CIDG and Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Ireneo Lee Gako Jr., who issued the search warrant, for allegedly intruding into customs’ functions.
That’s pathetic. The truth is, the customs collector was caught red-faced that, for the second time, the police were able to apprehend expensive RHD vehicles already outside the port. The issue has diminished the collector’s integrity.
A reader, who asked not to be named, called me up the other day, commending this corner’s view on this issue. The caller said the issuance of the search warrant does not take away jurisdiction from the Bureau of Customs.
The law confers the court’s jurisdiction. RTC Judge Gako correctly said that it is within the court’s jurisdiction to issue the search warrant since what was violated was Section 1 of Republic Act 8506, not the Tariff and Customs Code.
For Osmeña, anything that the police or the CIDG does is always tainted with irregularities. He’s just like Mangaoang. Even if the RHD vehicle is already outside the port, Mangaoang said the vehicle is still under her jurisdiction.
Mangaong should make good her threats to sue Gako, the Mandaue City police, RTC Judge Ulric Cañete and the CIDG, to show her mettle. Otherwise, when she makes another threat, she will sound like a broken record.
Under the law, every public servant, including the police, enjoys the presumption of regularity in the performance of his or her duties and responsibilities. To the city mayor, however, it is the reverse.
I wonder what the mayor will feel if he is branded an extortionist. Osmeña earlier threatened to close a telecommunications company for refusing to pay the local franchise tax. Under the law, the firm is not obliged to pay. Is the mayor’s threat not a form of extortion?
Bureau of Import Services Director Luis Catibayan missed the point. There is no argument that importation of motor vehicle parts is allowed. Is Catibayan trying to say that the seized RHD Toyota MRS was not a prohibited importation?
Perhaps, Catibayan was defending the importation of the RHD Toyota MRS as vehicle parts, not as a whole unit. Our mole in the customs bureau told me that technical smuggling is still the hottest business at the port.
(August 11, 2005 issue)
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