|
Four
replicating machines (worth P150 million) for the
production of digital video disc (DVD) films at the rate
of 300,000 DVDs a day were recently seized by the
Customs police under the supervision of Deputy Customs
Commissioner Celso Templo. Since it was clear that the
machines were brought in for an illegal purpose—that is,
to turn out copies of copyrighted Hollywood films for
the thriving pirated DVD market—Templo’s men, in a
follow-up operation, immediately proceeded to the
address in Tabang, Bulacan, where the importer/consignee
supposedly held office. The consignee was identified in
import papers as FDD East Commercial.
When
they got there, lo and behold! There was no office, only
an abandoned hovel. Amused barangay officials in the
vicinity later told Templo’s men the ramshackle place
had been uninhabited for quite some time.
What’s
funny is that the raiding party had somehow
half-expected to find a blank wall or fictitious address
in their follow-up operation. In their experience, this
was just one in a long series of raids that have yielded
negative results over the past 12 months. Now once again
they were in a situation where they had the goods, but
nobody to apprehend.
It seems
these fruitless raids have lately been happening with
increasing regularity: They catch and seize contraband
that have managed to slip past a formidable gauntlet of
Customs examiners and inspectors, then raid the
consignee’s office, only to find no office, no
consignee.
No
wonder the BOC has yet to apprehend any of the smugglers
who have been known in waterfront circles to be
operating with impunity ever since Mr. Napoleon Morales
took over as commissioner.
According to my moles, the Bureau of Customs has a long
list of accredited or licensed brokers/importers.
Probably more than half of the list of brokers/importers
who were licensed over the last 12 months exist only in
the imagination of the smugglers who hold sway at the
BOC.
But what
complicates the problem is that a good number of
licenses (for dummy firms) were also obtained by
legitimate business entities, which regularly import
their requirements through their brokers.
I
personally know two legitimate importers who swear they
have had to use dummy companies as consignees for their
imports as some sort of protection to elude involvement
in any useless time-consuming legal battle with the BOC.
The BOC,
they explained, often slap importers with charges of
misdeclaration or undervaluation “almost whimsically,”
just to be able to shake them down for additional grease
money, never mind if the importation is totally
above-board. Thus, the use of dummy firms as consignees
for imports is now “normal practice” at the waterfront.
Although
my source used the term “normal practice,” I’d rather
say obtaining licenses for dummy firms is now the
fashion at the waterfront.
The
legitimate importers I know revealed that it has become
too easy to obtain accreditation or an import license
from the BOC for even a nonexistent company. For
anywhere between P30,000 and P50,000, anybody can get a
license from the legal department (which is directly
under the office of Customs Commissioner Napoleon
Morales) even without genuine documentation. There will
always be fixers who would take care of satisfying such
silly legal requirements.
Legitimate importers have been forced to “go with the
flow” because they themselves are not sure how their
brokers conduct their business at the bureau. “If they
don’t pay the right taxes and duties, our own companies
won’t be included in suits that may be filed by the BOC,”
my importer friend explained.
As a
rule, legitimate importers obligate their brokers to
take care of all the “expenses” to be incurred until
their cargoes are safely in their own warehouses. Only
upon delivery will the broker get paid and reimbursed
for all his “expenses.”
In this
connection, many BOC personnel have come up with a money
machine that coughs up P60,000 per container van the
moment it is established that the consignee is
fictitious.
At the
BOC, insiders by now know how to distinguish the
fictitious consignees from the legal ones. They simply
ask for proof of billing from the broker. If he cannot
come up with one, then they have him by his “cojones.”
But
delivery of a cargo to the legitimate importer’s
warehouse does not ensure that the importer is beyond
the reach of BOC mulcters, according to my source. A new
unit created by Commissioner Morales is now the subject
of many complaints from legitimate importers. It is
called the “Post Entry Audit Group,” or PEAG, which has
allegedly been harassing importers even after they had
paid the correct taxes and duties.
PEAG
members have been authorized to approach importers and
threaten the latter with a reexamination of their
cargoes. Usually the mere hint of a time-consuming post
audit is enough to make an importer cough up yet again
another hefty sum to momentarily pacify these
overzealous BOC officials.
At the
105th anniversary of the BOC recently, Commissioner
Morales had a reason to be jubilant because Finance
Secretary Gary Teves and Trade and Industry Secretary
Peter Favila were the guests of honor, although
President Arroyo was conspicuously absent. But on the
very same day, the newspapers had played up the news
that Morales and several trusted assistants were being
charged with graft before the Ombudsman in connection
with smuggled pork shipment from China. His
corespondents in this graft case are chief of staff
James Enriquez, antismuggling task force executive
director Alex Arcilla, collector Horacio Suansing Jr.,
Divino Catbagan, Facundo Bitanga, Romeo Fernando Jr.,
Diomedes Cabaluna, Boy Reyes and broker Sulpicio
Estrada.
E-mail: Omerta_bdc@yahoo.com. |
