3 Cebu customs execs face graft charges

Three ranking Customs officials and two Customs brokers in Cebu face graft charges over the release of 15 container vans of rice even without payment of the proper taxes and duties. Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez approved the 12-page resolution of the Ombudsman Visayas to charge the officials with violating the anti-graft law. Facing charges are Angel Go, acting chief wharfinger; Habib Diator, acting wharfinger; and Conrado Rivera, Customs guard, all of the Bureau of Customs, Port of Cebu. Also facing charges are Joven Cesar Abuda and Emmanuel Carollo, Customs brokers of E.R. Carollo Customs Brokerage Services, Mandaue City. The five face charges before the Cebu City regional trial court. The case stemmed from an anonymous complaint filed before the Office of the Ombudsman Visayas on the alleged connivance of certain BOC officials with private individuals, for the release of 15 container vans of undeclared rice from the Cebu port, without payment of customs duties and taxes. According to the complaint, "the method of release was through the use of fake or falsified Import Entry documents that purportedly showed the payment of customs duties and taxes but was revealed later to be untrue." Investigation showed that the accused used five falsified Import Entry documents to make it appear that a total of P1,172,384 in customs duties have been paid for the release of the container vans. Percito Lozada, then the acting chief of the Assessment Division of the Port of Cebu, said the documents were spurious. Lozada said the documents "did not bear the machine imprints of the bank indicating the payment of duties and taxes due thereon." On the other hand, documentary evidence showed Carollo's name and signature appeared in the fake import entry documents while Abuda's appeared in all the withdrawal documents used for the unauthorized release of the cargo. It also identified Go as the person who submitted the fake documents to the Oriental Port and Allied Services Corporation (OPASCOR), the cargo handler in the Cebu Port Authority (CPA), for the processing of the cargo's release. Diator's signature or initials appeared on the withdrawal receipts of OPASCOR signifying clearance from the Customs Wharfinger. The accused Customs officials denied the allegations, saying their duties are ministerial and thus do not involve determination of the authenticity of the documents in question. But the Ombudsman junked their argument, saying that as long-time Customs officials, "the nature of their functions creates an expectation of their awareness of the most basic means of detecting the authenticity or spuriousness of import entry documents." It added that the evidence showed government has been defrauded by P1,172,384 for the illegal release of 15 container vans of imported rice without the payment of customs duties and taxes. - GMANews.TV