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Tuesday, September 30, 2008
2 agencies 'collide' in anti-smuggling operation
CEBU CITY -- Tension momentarily blanketed a warehouse at the reclamation area in Mandaue City around 7 p.m. Monday night as elements of two government agencies got entangled in a standoff over custody of a container van.
However, both the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)-Central Visayas and the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG)-Cebu would not give details of the confrontation over the apprehension of one of three container vans that were subjects of an anti-smuggling operation.
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The conflict stemmed from NBI-Central Visayas conducting the operation without the knowledge of PASG-Cebu, the unit specifically tasked to curb smuggling in the province.
"It was a legitimate operation that was covered by a mission order from Undersecretary Antonio Villar," Ernesto Macabare, NBI-Central Visayas head agent and executive officer, said in an interview after the standstill.
Confrontation
Witnesses said PASG-Cebu men manhandled two NBI agents, later identified as Special Investigators Rey Villordon and Greg Tomagan, forcing them to lie on the ground and attempting to relieve them of their weapons.
Both agents denied this in an interview although they admitted they were held at gunpoint and were outnumbered.
They said that a PASG-Cebu operative, identified as Noel Villamor, kept giving instructions that they get down and surrender their firearms.
Jojo Collantes, PASG-Cebu deputy director, confirmed that two NBI agents were disarmed by the combined PASG-Cebu and Mandaue City's Special Weapons and Tactics (Swat) team.
This, after they acted on reports that armed were posing as PASG agents.
Collantes said they only realized that the two persons they disarmed were members of NBI when agent Arnel Pura, who was known to them, showed up.
Macabare said that PASG-Cebu men initially questioned the validity of the operation, to which he countered by producing the mission order.
They then asked why the NBI did not coordinate with the PASG-Cebu.
"The instruction for us came from their head office. Shouldn't the information that we are conducting an operation in their jurisdiction also come from their head office?" Macabare posed.
The tension deescalated only after members of the media arrived because, according to one agent, the PASG-Cebu force slowly left.
The agents though aren't planning to pursue the matter.
"We will make a report and wait for the recommendation of Regional Director (Medardo) de Lemos," said Supervising Agent Ermie Monsanto, also a lawyer.
Instruction
An NBI agent said that last Friday, Edmund Arugay, deputy director of the NBI Manila and at the same time Operations Director of PASG-Manila, instructed NBI-Central Visayas to watch the release of three container vans from the customs yard at Cebu International Port (CIP).
The three container vans are believed to contain resins.
The Bureau of Customs (BOC) released one of the vans Monday prompting NBI-Central Visayas elements to follow the ten-wheeler truck that ferried the van to the warehouse across the Cebu Doctors University premises.
It was at this time that somebody called up PASG-Cebu and informed that armed men wanted to seize the van.
The seized van remains under NBI custody, guarded by agents inside the compound where it was brought.
BOC Port of Cebu District Collector Ricardo Belmonte said that he might issue a warrant of seizure and detention against the cargo if the NBI will turn these over to the bureau.
He said that under the Tariff and Customs Code, an enforcement unit, whether the police or the NBI, must turn over any imported cargo to BOC within 72 hours from the time this was apprehended.
Mission order
Macabare, however, would not confirm the supposed instruction from Arugay and refused to speculate as to why the PASG-Cebu was being kept out.
"Why the assignment was given to us and not to them (PASG-Cebu), or why they were not informed about it, I don't know," he said.
"We were not told where they (vans) came from or what they contained. The instruction was specific, to apprehend them as soon as they leave the customs zone," he added.
Given that the mission order was duly signed, Macabare said they complied.
The mission order was addressed to Arugay, the team leader, Director Guillermo Pedro Francia, Jovellano Templo and Roland Sanchez, all of the PASG in Manila.
They were "to be assisted by NBI Region VII, headed by (de Lemos)."
Villar's mission order authorized the team led by Arugay and supported by the NBI Cebu to "investigate the presence of alleged goods; to apprehend persons possibly involved in the smuggling the said goods."
It likewise tasked them with "(conducting) further investigation and file appropriate administrative and criminal charges against person(s) responsible for smuggling and violation of customs laws and other related laws and regulations."
Surveillance
Surveillance for the mission began Friday and continued until around 6 p.m. Monday, when an asset reported that one of the three-targeted vans was about to leave the facility.
The agents said they did not know where the van would be headed, hence their failure to inform the Mandaue City police.
"We ran after the van as it entered the compound and announced ourselves," Tomagan said in a separate interview. "There was no problem. We were even talking with the people in the compound already," he said.
Even after the Swat team arrived, no problem ensued.
"I was familiar with one of the Swat policeman," said NBI Supervising Agent Renan Oliva, a lawyer, when asked.
The escalation began when the armed PASG-Cebu operatives, who came in the heels of the Swat policemen, arrived.
"We kept identifying ourselves as NBI agents but they remained hostile. We just stood our ground," one agent said. (KNR/With reports from EOB/Sun.Star Cebu)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Cebu. (September 30, 2008 issue)
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