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Tuesday, September 28, 2004
Arroyo to customs: Draw up battle plan v. smugglers
MANILA -- President Arroyo ordered Customs Commissioner George Jereos Monday to draw up an Order of Battle (OB) for smugglers as part of her administration's renewed fight against them.
Arroyo held a command conference Monday with Customs collectors at Malacaņang's State Dining Room and was given a status report on the collections in each of the country's ports.
"The President reiterated her order to go hammer and tongs against smugglers," Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said.
Bunye, who is also presidential spokesman, said the battle plan against smugglers would work in the same principle as the ones for kidnappers and drug lords.
However, he was not sure whether government would also splash the pictures of the country's top 20 smugglers in posters and paste them in public places along with the rewards for their capture.
"The idea is to identify the alleged smugglers and come up with a plan to bring them to justice. (But) we don't know what the Order of Battle would look like," he said.
He said Arroyo did not mention any particular smuggler because it was up to Jereos to draw up the list.
Asked what Malacaņang would do if the name of First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo crops up in the course of the drafting of the OB, he said: "It is farfetched. That is hypothetical. That is farfetched and I am sure that the Customs Commissioner will come up with a credible list."
Bunye said Jereos also presented a list of the 112 cases filed against violators of the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines.
Deputy Customs Commissioner Gil Valera, in his presentation in Malacaņang, said they have so far collected P69 million from seven tax credit cases. He said there were 60 such cases.
Valera said they also levied P30 million on the residence of Faustino Chinkoe and imposed a P100 million-duty on a 5,000-square meter property at La Vista owned by the Melchor Tan family.
He said of the 49 cases against insurance companies, customs has collected P38.1 million in four forfeited bonds cases. He said customs is in the process of implementing a decision holding another insurance company for P22 million.
He said with the help of the Office of the Solicitor General and two task forces of customs lawyers, "we will continue recovering millions for our government."
Arroyo has issued Executive Order (EO) 363 broadening the powers of the customs chief to fight smuggling by giving him the powers of the defunct Economic Intelligence and Investigation Bureau.
Arroyo, in EO 363, ordered Jereos to pay particular attention to the smuggling of rice, sugar, vegetables, vehicles, alcohol, and dangerous drugs.
She ordered the setting up of a special team of prosecutors from the BOC to help Jereos. The prosecutors could also be recruited from other government agencies as long as they have the blessings of their heads of office.
She also ordered the Armed Forces, PNP, and Coast Guard to assign technical and special staff to assist Jereos in fighting smuggling. (JMR)
(September 28, 2004 issue)
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