Duterte appoints Customs collector implicated in P6.4B shabu mess as BOC assistant commissioner

A Customs district collector implicated in the controversial smuggling of P6.4 billion worth of shabu has been appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte as assistant commissioner of the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

Former Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) district collector Vincent Philip Maronilla was appointed on April 3 as assistant commissioner of the BOC.

Maronilla will replace Ariel Nepomuceno, who resigned from his post early last month.

Maronilla, who was then the district collector of the Manila International Container Port (MICP), was among the BOC officials identified by Customs fixer Mark Taguba as having received bribe money to facilitate the entry of smuggled goods in the county during the House inquiry into the P6.4-billion shabu shipment in August last year.

He was removed from the MICP by Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña and put under floating status before he was appointed as district collector at NAIA in December 2017. — MDM, GMA News