THE Federation of Philippine Industries (FPI) and farmers’ groups are pressing for the filing of charges against importers and brokers allegedly behind the illegal shipment of assorted vegetables, including onions, that were confiscated by operatives of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) at a warehouse in Trece Martirez, Cavite, recently.

Jesus Arranza, FPI president, said they are starting to be apprehensive that the case will again be overlooked without anybody getting prosecuted, as the BOC is now “quiet on this.”

Arranza said that while the personalities who brought in the seized cargoes were already identified, FPI and farmers’ groups could not understand why the BOC has not filed a case in court.

“Why haven’t we heard any news on the filing of cases against the people behind [the smuggling of farm goods]? Is it hard to pinpoint these people? We know already that the broker is a certain Mr. Teves, who is also handling a lot of products and is well-known to customs people,” he said in a statement.

Arranza said domestic industries are closely monitoring the case. “If no person was charged, this will clearly show that officers up to the top level are in cahoots with them.”

He said unless the BOC has shown that its efforts against smuggling is not half-hearted, the agency will continue to fall short of its revenue- collection goals as unscrupulous businessmen will just go on with their activities without fear.

Rodolfo Niones, president of the Kapisanan ng  mga Magsisibuyas sa Nueva Ecija, said families of thousands of onion farmers are now losing their livelihood because the BOC could not curtail the alleged smuggling of onion into the country.

Those behind this alleged illegal shipment of onions, he said, should be put behind bars to give justice to the farmers.

A team headed by Deputy Commissioner Jake Panguntalan earlier seized four refrigerated vans of vegetables, one dry van and three container vans of onions. The papers of these shipments showed they passed through the Manila International Container Port Section 1.

Arranza said this is very similar to the case of broker Agapito Mendez. According to the records culled by the Presidential Antismuggling Group, headed by Undersecretary Antonio Villar, Mendez has a pending case filed by Customs for diversion of importation through warehousing.

Also, Arranza noted that based on records of the BOC, Mendez was also the broker of almost 3,000 container vans of resins and 1,500 container vans of fabric, all declared under warehousing entry, so taxes and duties were left unpaid.

However, Mendez’s operations remained unscathed up to this time. As of press time, Mendez and other BOC officials contacted by the BusinessMirror could not be reached for comment.

“These are red flags that Customs should pursue. They should go after these people. Why are they so soft on these people? [This is why] they cannot meet their [collection] targets,” said Arranza.