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Sunday, September 14, 2003
Middleman squeals on vans loss 'brains'
By Garry A. Cabotaje & Elias O. Baquero
CEBU -- Rustico "Loloy" Fernandez, the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Services (CIIS) messenger, finally admitted his participation in the illegal withdrawal of two container vans from the Cebu International Port (CIP) exactly a week ago.
Fernandez, 37, of Maasin, Leyte, told Sun.Star that he indeed acted as the "bridge" of Wendell dela Fuente and reach stacker operator Arnold Glodove, 31, of the Oriental Port and Allied Services Corp. (Opascor).
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 believes dela Fuente is the representative of the real cargo owner.
It is investigating the missing vans to see if it has any connection with the death of customs deputy collector Eduardo "Wewe" Lao and customs appraiser Bennet Soreņo.
Dela Fuente is now the subject of the NBI 7's manhunt.
Following his admission, Fernandez, a father of two, asked NBI 7 Chief Reynaldo Esmeralda that he be placed in the bureau's protective custody.
He believes dela Fuente would get back at him for cooperating with the NBI.
Parking lot
Fernandez said dela Fuente first approached him at a parking lot outside the CIP last month and asked him who he should deal with in Opascor to remove the 10 20-footer vans from the port.
Dela Fuente then offered him P5,000 if he could arrange with an Opascor operator for the release of the vans.
The CIIS seized the 10 vans of imported rice last July 18, six days before Lao and Soreņo were ambushed by two gunmen along Osmeņa Blvd., Cebu City last July 24.
Fernandez said dela Fuente also assured him that the top management at the Bureau of Customs (BOC) Port of Cebu was told about the plan.
With this assurance, Fernandez said he then called up Glodove, whom he considers his kababayan in Leyte, and arranged a meeting with dela Fuente.
No ranking customs official prodded him to negotiate with dela Fuente, Fernandez said.
Two more meetings with dela Fuente followed at Sunburst restaurant in SM City mall and Do Nest, a native restaurant near White Gold Club at the North Reclamation Area.
Operator
In last Friday's press conference at the NBI 7, Fernandez strongly denied that he was the person who facilitated a series of meetings between dela Fuente and Glodove and Arnel Ondoy, 34, Opascor's transcraner operator.
Ondoy told the NBI 7 that he had operated the transcraner equipment that lifted the two vans and put them into a trailer truck early evening of Sept. 7.
But Fernandez stressed that he only arranged the meeting of dela Fuente and the two Opascor workers, saying he was no longer around when the two vans were finally taken out from the pier.
He was supposed to go home in Leyte that night but opted to stay overnight in Talisay City as he was left behind by a passenger ship.
Fernandez said he learned about the taking out of the vans the next day.
Opascor, meanwhile, will provide legal assistance to Glodove and Ondoy following their admission of helping in the removal of the vans from the CIP.
But Opascor president and general manager Benjamin Akol said the management would find out first whether the two were "part of the crime" or "forced to commit the crime."
"If they were part of the crime, they deserve to be prosecuted. But if they were forced to commit the crime, then that's another story," Akol said.
Sanctions
For his part, Opascor executive vice president Tomas Riveral said the two Opascor workers cannot escape punitive sanctions from the company.
Glodove and Ondoy, in their affidavits, admitted that they got P10,000 and P5,000, respectively, from dela Fuente after the two vans were delivered outside the pier.
"I want that smuggling activities in (CIP) be permanently stopped," said Riveral, also incumbent commissioner of the Cebu Port Commission.
CIP is under the jurisdiction of the Cebu Port Authority (CPA), which is also accountable for the missing vans. Opascor is the exclusive cargo handling service provider at CIP.
CIP manager Ben Cartilla said he initially investigated the security guards manning the CIP south gate, where the two vans had passed through as narrated by Glodove.
The guards, Cartilla said, denied having participated in the stealing of the vans.
Cartilla said the top CPA management under General Manager Marinao C.J. Martinez may summon Visscor Security Agency, which has a contract with CPA.
Martinez did not answer the phone calls made by Sun.Star yesterday.
Retired police colonel Renato Mojado, Visscor security guards commander, said they will require the guards who manned the south gate to shed light on the matter.
"We are conducting our own investigation and we will coordinate with the NBI," he said.
(September 14, 2003 issue)
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