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Thursday, June 05, 2008
House inquiry on smuggling ends
MANILA -- The House committee on good government ended Wednesday its inquiry but failed to identify the smugglers and customs officials who are reportedly responsible for bringing in untaxed and undervalued vehicles to Cebu.
Representative Pablo John Garcia (Cebu, 3rd district) said that Representative Pedro Romualdo (Camiguin), committee head, is reluctant to divulge the names in the list submitted by the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG) due to the absence of evidence.
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Most of the smugglers used dummies and fictitious consignees, and PASG did not file charges against them, hence, making public their identities is libelous.
Also at the hearing, Representative Antonio Cuenco (Cebu City, south district) proposed a quarterly publication of the lists of accredited importers and brokers by the Bureau of Customs (BOC).
The publication of the lists will allow authorities to easily trace illegal registered vehicles.
Cuenco said the certified lists are placed in a database and can be accessed online, but it must be published for the benefit of the people unfamiliar with the use of computers.
"We would like to propose that the publication of the same (lists of accredited brokers and importers) will be compulsory in newspapers of general circulation," he said.
Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales, who attended the hearing, agreed to the proposal.
Case dismissal
Cuenco said an oversight committee should also be created to see if all the provisions of the law are complied with by the BOC.
Cebu is one of the cities where vehicle smuggling is rampant.
Cuenco and fellow Cebu City Representative Raul Del Mar (north) said the agencies in charge of preventing smuggling should strictly implement the rules on it.
Leyte Representative Andres Salvacion supported the two saying their committee is tired of hearing insufficiency of evidence as a reason for dismissal of cases on smuggling.
"No one has ever been convicted" in smuggling, he said.
"The policy of the BOC should be strengthened. The BOC legal department should be blamed for the dismissal of many smuggling cases as the agency lacks effort to back such cases," added Salvacion.
State Prosecutor Zabedin Azis said most cases of smuggling were dismissed due to lack of evidence. He said smugglers are also hard to be identified as they use dummies and fictitious consignees.
Meanwhile, Cuenco said goods "coming in the Philippines or abroad should be subjected to X-ray without any exception, and during the X-ray there should be a representative of the Commission on Audit (COA) and the media for monitoring."
But the BOC said not all goods and vehicles could be subjected to X-ray because the machine is incapable of examining many cargoes.
Committee chairman Romualdo set the next hearing on July 28.
Garcia and del Mar also told the committee that smuggled vehicles landed in other ports of the country but were registered by the Land Transportation Office (LTO) in Cebu.
Garcia said that the report of the PASG and the LTO will show that a great number of vehicles registered with LTO-Toledo City have addresses in Metro Manila and other parts of the country.
By analyzing the PASG and LTO reports, it is possible that vehicles were registered in Cebu without its physical appearance, he said.
This means that after the vehicles arrived in other ports, the documents covering the vehicle importation were brought to Cebu for registration.
On the other hand, Del Mar said that during Wednesday's meeting, the representative from the Department of Justice (DOJ) failed to give satisfactory details of the cases, which were reportedly filed by the BOC and PASG.
The DOJ representative has asked for enough time to come up with the main proposed amendment, especially on the basis of final valuation.
Del Mar said the basis of final valuation of vehicles and other imported goods is the key to stop, if not eradicate smuggling. (EOB of Sun.Star Cebu/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Dumaguete. (June 5, 2008 issue)
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