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Tuesday, September 30, 2003
Controversial vans: NBI traces brokers
CEBU -- The identity of the person who paid for wharfage fees for the 10 container vans of smuggled rice was established Monday.
This brings the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 closer to unmasking the owner of the shipment that has been linked to the killing of customs deputy collector Eduardo "Wewe" Lao and customs appraiser Bennett Soreņo last July 24.
The NBI 7 was asked to look into the shipment's origins after two of the 10 vans went missing last month.
Two informal workers of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) have been tagged as suspects in the Lao-Soreņo fatal ambush.
One has said he was playing basketball that day, but a caretaker said no member of the CIIS played around the time Lao and Soreņo were gunned down about 5 p.m. on Osmeņa Blvd., Cebu City.
From documents submitted by Cebu Port Authority (CPA) operations manager Manuel Pekit-pekit, the NBI 7 learned that one Reggie Paniza paid P16,000 wharfage fees for 10 container vans.
Pekit-pekit showed up Monday morning at the NBI 7 with the shipment documents and official receipts.
NBI 7 Chief Reynaldo Esmeralda said that Paniza the paid fees at the CPA last July 17, a day before the cargoes arrived at the Cebu International Port (CIP) onboard cargo vessel mv Pacific Envoy.
The shipment reportedly came from Singapore but the NBI 7 believes that it originated from Vietnam, the country's source of imported rice.
The NBI 7 initially received a report that Paniza allegedly represented the Caburnay Customs Brokerage owned by Lucia Caburnay.
When checked, the person is not an employee of that brokerage firm, Esmeralda said.
Esmeralda believes that Paniza is connected with another company, the DS Arbiol Customs Brokerage of Demosthenes Arbiol.
The two brokerage companies are being investigated by the NBI 7 after it was found out that they facilitated the documents for the 10 container vans.
The NBI 7 also discovered that DS Arbiol handled the two missing container vans consigned to Tamiya Phils. and Taiyo Yuden. The two vans were illegally taken out from the CIP last Sept. 7.
Rustico "Loloy" Fernandez, an errand boy at the CIIS, was identified as the one who contacted port workers to remove the two vans. He was also identified as one of two gunmen in the Lao-Soreņo ambush.
He has denied involvement in the killing, saying he was playing basketball at the time.
However, a caretaker of the sports complex in Sitio Tangkongan, Barangay Sambag 1, confirmed Monday that no member of the CIIS played basketball that day.
Hermielinda Caritan showed to an NBI 7 team a logbook stating that only the students from the Southwestern University used the barangay gymnasium for three hours from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. for P300.
The name Bentoy also appeared in the logbook whose group played from 10:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. that same night.
Caritan told the NBI 7 that the CIIS team played at the gym the next day from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. The CIIS paid P300 last July 30, she said.
The NBI 7 got a photocopy of the logbook, which was certified as a true copy by Sambag I Barangay Administrator Joselito Navarrete.
Sought for comment, NBI 7 Chief Reynaldo Esmeralda that the logbook report further strengthens the case against Fernandez and the other suspect, Juan Jesus Vergel de Dios.
From the crime scene, Esmeralda said the Sambag 1 sports complex can be reached in five minutes by motorcycle.
Two gunmen strafed Lao's blue Isuzu Trooper when it stopped for a red light on Osmeņa Blvd. and R.R. Landon St.
De Dios had said he was at the CIIS safe house on R.R. Landon St., which is about 110 meters away from the scene, when the assault happened.
Six witnesses of the NBI have identified Fernandez and de Dios as the ones who carried out the ambush. GC/Sun.Star Cebu
(September 30, 2003 issue)
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