Friday, November 07, 2008 PASG 7 official summoned over missing, damaged cars
THE Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG) 7 operations chief has been summoned to answer on Monday why some cars entrusted to the agency’s care can no longer be found or have been cannibalized of parts and accessories.
Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Geraldine Faith Econg said she’ll endorse her clerk of court’s discovery to “investigating bodies like the Office of the Ombudsman” if she is not convinced by the explanation of Customs Operations Officer 1 Ricardo Collantes.
Power
“The power of the Regional Trial Court is only to hold people in contempt,” she said. But she hinted that she will exercise that power fully if necessary.
Collantes has been subpoenaed to appear before Econg’s court on Monday.
There he is expected to explain the discovery of Judge Econg’s Clerk of court, lawyer chevin Quinon Vasquez, that only 16 of 18 vehicles the PASG took into custody after a raid of Michael Nengasca’s Song Pa Trading Warehouse in Mandaue City could be accounted for.
Of the 16 vehicles, all from South Korea, five are locked and cannot be opened because the keys could no longer be found. Two have a chassis number that was different from what was declared in the report the PASG made after the raid.
Among those that could not be found, Econg said, is a vehicle described as a Hyundai V6.
“A V6 denotes a sports utility vehicle. Only SUVs use that kind of engine,” she said.
According to Vasquez’s report, PASG 7 officials who took custody of the cars abandoned the vehicles in a yard near the office after they were all relieved following a recent incident in Mandaue City.
Custody
“These cars are custodia legis. This means they are under the custody of the court. The court is responsible for what happens to them,” Econg said.
Econg said the cars were entrusted to the PASG after the raid, which was pursuant to a search warrant she issued, because they petitioned the court for possession.
Econg said PASG officials told her in a pleading that they needed physical possession of the cars so that an “administrative determination of liability” could be made.
In that process, the duly authorized government agency will see if the papers of the vehicles are in order. If found to be lacking, the vehicles will then undergo seizure proceedings.
Econg, however, said the cars were never turned over to the Bureau of Customs (BOC), the agency that would have made the administrative determination.
She said Collantes only recently moved for the transfer of custody to the BOC.
“Why was there no turnover before and how come the vehicles now are in that condition?” Econg posed.
Econg said she sent Vasquez to conduct the inventory because a certain amount of time had passed and she had not heard anything from the PASG regarding the cars.
All the nine cars that could be opened and had its chassis numbers match with that of the court’s records were divested of its stereo. One had been dented on its right side, another had a broken windshield, two had no engine and one had all four tires missing. (KNR)
