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Thursday, August 14, 2003
NBI dared: Name port men in smuggling try
By Edwin G. Espejo
GENERAL SANTOS -- Philippine Coast Guard station chief Lt. Cdr. George Ursabia challenged on Wednesday a National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) official to identify government agencies colluding with traders who tried to smuggle in imported goods from Indonesia last Sunday.
Ursabia said the sweeping statements of Boye Mama, chief of the NBI field office here, were bound to create conflict instead of generate support for government agencies.
The coastguard official claimed it was he and his men who initiated board and search operations, together with Bureau of Customs (BOC) personnel, on mv Honduras.
If Mama has evidence, he should immediately identify those involved in the smuggling activities and file a complaint against them, Ursabia pointed out.
"Kay sakit kaayo para nako kanang sweeping statement niya nga dunay koneksiyon ang mga port personnel sa smuggling," Ursabia pointed out. (His sweeping statement that port personnel are involved in the smuggling really hurts.)
Ursabia said he even appreciated the presence of the NBI during the board and search operation on the vessel on Monday.
He was annoyed when Mama claimed that coastguard and customs authorities were not around when the vessel was searched.
"Kami ang nag-initiate niadtong operation pero sa iyang gihimo nga statement mura mi og natulog sa among trabaho kay wala kami nahimo," said Ursabia. (We were the ones who initiated the operation but he made it appear that we were sleeping on our jobs because we did not do anything.)
Mama said he would press charges against the registered consignees of the seized cargoes.
More than 223 boxes and bales of wrongfully declared items were seized by NBI, coast guard and customs operatives from a cargo vessel that docked at Makar Wharf on Sunday evening.
In addition, more than 1,500 bags of soil believed to contain gold ores were declared as seaweed extracts.
Also now ordered impounded is the still undetermined volume of corn that was listed in the cargo manifest.
Mama said the shipment was declared as including yellow corn grain, seaweed and car accessories.
"Dahil nakapasok ang mga items na wala sa manifesto, ibig sabihin, itinago iyon habang ang iba ay talagang bawal sa atin. Malaking ebidensiya na ito para sa isasampa nating kaso," Mama said. (Because some of the items in the shipment were not in the manifest, it means these were hidden and some of were even banned articles. These are evidence for the case that we will file.)
NBI said the 10 consignees of the seized cargoes are Paez Mustafa, Abdul Gapur, Jamil Piel, HBM Jalilula, Boyet Abdulrajak, Jalilula Abdulrajak, certain Nashrudin, Abdulgani, Morte and H. Nuestra.
The Bureau of Customs has yet to compute the total value of the items.
Customs collector Lowell Medija on Tuesday said he has not yet received an official report from his men on the breakdown of the items that were ordered seized Monday.
"There is no report yet to that effect," Medija told reporters.
Like Ursabia, he also rejected claims that customs officials were not around when the NBI agents boarded the vessel.
He said that upon receiving reports of the reported smuggling try, he ordered his men to board and inspect the vessel.
"I instructed my office to lead a search team composed of customs police and I was told they were ably assisted by the NBI and coastguard in verifying reports of mercury cargo and other contrabands," Medija stressed.
Sources said customs and coastguard authorities first boarded the vessel Monday morning even before the NBI arrived.
Medija said he was not able to personally supervise the search as he was in Davao to attend a conference.
Meanwhile, Ursabia revealed he already has the license plate of the Nissan Safari Patrol vehicle seen loading some items brought down from the mv Honduras between Sunday evening and Monday dawn.
He said the license plate of the vehicle, whose owner he still has to identify, is MBS 184.
Ursabia said he was also informed that the customs employee he confronted was Ibrahim Beruar over the unloading of some boxes from mv Honduras.
The BOC employee told him the boxes were personal effects of the crew but Ursabia said he ordered Beruar to return the boxes to the ship. With Merlyn F. Velarde
(August 13, 2003 issue)
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