CITING “unabated smuggling” of illegal drugs and other commodities slipping past the Bureau of Customs, Sen. Richard J. Gordon is pushing for major changes in the BOC’s policy to check entry of smuggled shipments.
Lamenting that the government was losing P900 billion in “uncollected duties and taxes,” Gordon acknowledged on Wednesday “a marked improvement in the BOC’s collections” but added: “may mga nakakalusot pa din.”
He found it alarming that “tons of illegal drug shabu were allowed to enter the country right through the guardian of our ports.”
“This is especially so when there is a furor because people are killed for mere sachets of shabu,” the senator added, even as the Duterte administration is waging an “ongoing” deadly war against drugs.
In reopening the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee inquiry into the shabu-smuggling case, Gordon pressed for immediate policy changes in the BOC to step up the antismuggling drive. The senator suggested that all consignees of imported items brought into the country’s ports “must be registered to stop the practices of consignees-for-hire or consignees-on-record,” which Gordon noted as a lucrative scheme that “only enable syndicates to bring in smuggled shipments.”
Gordon cited the recent shabu- smuggling case where investigation showed a certain EMT Trading was used to bring out the banned shipment. Moreover, the senator suggested that the BOC should ensure that consignees have registered warehouses and trucking companies doing business with consignees should be duly-registered with the BOC, adding that the BOC should also “conduct regular inspections on warehouses since this could also help, amid the current rice crisis, ensure that there would be no hoarding.”
Gordon added that authorities should also verify that all trucks bringing out goods from Customs are registered. This, he said, also applies to the warehouses where the imported goods are stored.
“Ngayon ang bigas kinakapos. Di ba dapat lahat ng maglalabas ng bigas, alam natin kung saan ang bodega nila at ini-inspection regularly? Kung may dumating na bigas diyan, dapat titingnan kung may itinatago o hinihintay na tumaas ang presyo. [Now our rice is in short supply. Isn’t it we should know which warehouse a stock of rice comes from and if this is regularly inspected? We must check if rice is being hoarded in this warehouse and if they’re waiting for prices to increase]” the senator said.
At the same time, Gordon wants to “reduce the period allotted by the BOC before declaring as abandoned shipments that are stacked in the BOC’s container yards.” He explains this “would not only decongest the Port of Manila, but would also snatch the opportunity for corruption and make the country attractive to foreign investors.”