More raps filed vs Lapeña
Credit to Author: JOMAR CANLAS, TMT| Date: Thu, 24 Jan 2019 16:15:56 +0000
THE NATIONAL Bureau of Investigation has filed charges before the Department of Justice (DoJ) against former Customs commissioner Isidro Lapeña and 52 others over drug shipments that slipped past the Bureau of Customs (BoC) last year.
offices in Manila on Thursday. PHOTO BY RUSSEL PALMA
Lapeña was charged in connection with the shabu shipment seized at the Manila International Container Port (MICP) and magnetic lifters found in Cavite, which were said to have contained more than a ton of the illegal substance.
The incident became the clincher for his ouster at the BoC, after whistleblower Maria Lourdes Mangaoang accused him of being remiss on his duties.
In October last year, President Rodrigo Duterte named Lapeña director general of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (Tesda).
In August last year, agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) found two abandoned magnetic lifters at the Port of Manila, containing 355 kilos of shabu worth P2.4 billion.
Following the discovery, similar lifters were discovered abandoned at a warehouse in General Mariano Alvarez, Cavite which the PDEA believed contained 1.6 tons of shabu worth P11 billion.
In a complaint-affidavit, the NBI sought the indictment of Lapeña for violation of Republic Act 3019 — dereliction of duty and grave misconduct over his failure to act on the drug shipments.
The complaint was signed and approved by Director Dante Gierran.
Administrative and graft charges are within the jurisdiction of the Office of the Ombudsman, but can be filed with the Department of Justice (DoJ) for case buildup, and later referred to the Ombudsman.
The NBI said Lapeña failed to file complaints against the consignees, importers and brokers of the two magnetic lifters with hidden shabu at the Port of Manila, and the four magnetic lifters that slipped past BoC and were found empty in Cavite.
“Despite the lapse of time, Commissioner Lapeña did not file any case against the shippers or consignees of the magnetic lifters, which should have been done upon discovery of the goods by misclassification, since it is very obvious that the declaration made by the shipper is not the same as what were intercepted,” the complaint stated.
Manila and Cavite lifters similar
The complaint argued that there was no need to present the missing drugs as evidence. “While it is true that in drug-related cases, the illegal drugs is the corpus delicti, we believe that such requirement has been satisfied in this case,” it said.
“The abandoned magnetic lifters at MICP filled with prohibited drugs and those in GMA (General Mariano Alvarez), Cavite, have the same square openings, color, and structure. The square opening is not a design or enhancement, much less, an ornament of the machines and its presence was made intentionally to mark and identify the spot where the illegal drugs were concealed,” the NBI said
Also charged by the NBI were sacked Port of Manila District collector Vener Baquiran for his failure to declare as abandoned the two magnetic lifters at the MICP, X-ray Inspection Project head Carrie de Guzman and two others for allowing the four magnetic lifters in Cavite to pass through Customs.
Also in the complaint were 50 other personalities allegedly involved in the importation and release of the shipments.
Administrative and criminal charges were slapped under Republic Act 9165 (Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act) against former PDEA deputy director general for administration Ismael Fajardo Jr.; Sr. Supt. Eduardo Acierto, former PNP anti-illegal drugs group official; former Customs intelligence agent Jimmy Guban; police inspector Lito Pirote; and Joseph Dimayuga.
Guban, who has confessed about his knowledge of the coverup of the shipments, is under the DoJ Witness Protection Program.
Other respondents were Fhonie Chan, also known as KC Chan; Willin Ong alias Wilson Ong; Jiang Quoqing; Vedasto Baquel; Maria Lagrimas Catipan and Emelyn
Luquingan for the MICP shipment; as well as Hsu Chung-chun, James Fung, Le Thi Thu Huong, Du Quoc Duong, Migela Santos, Katrina Grace Cuasay and Marina Signapan for the Cavite shipment.
At the height of the controversy, Lapeña was cleared in a fact-finding investigation by the PDEA. Afterwards, he was promoted and appointed director general of Tesda by Duterte.
In November, criminal charges were filed by the NBI before the DoJ against Lapeña over alleged anomalies in the release of 105 containers of ceramic tiles worth at least P69 million from China by port operator Asian Terminals Inc. in March 2018.
‘Tara still exists’
Also on Thursday, Lapeña’s successor, Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero, admitted that the so-called tara system of bribes still existed in the bureau despite a no let-up campaign against technical smuggling and other fraudulent activities.
Guerrero pointed out, though, that there was a marked reduction in the incidence of corruption, which he attributed to reform measures aimed at increasing revenue collection and cutting illegal transactions.
He claimed that when he assumed the top Customs post in September 2018, the grease money per container was P35,000. It’s down to P5,000, he said.
“It’s not easy to catch these smugglers [and their accomplices in Customs] because they are good in circumventing the law, and they have contacts both in and out of the bureau who are doing the maneuvering on how to evade the reforms initiated in the [BoC],” he said.
He said reforms initiated in the bureau did wonders in curbing corruption and increasing revenues. For the first time in almost a decade, said Guerrero, the BoC exceeded its collection target in 2018 by P458 million.
The accreditation process, he said, was also simplified to six steps from 11 steps.
To strengthen the campaign against smuggling, the bureau has upgraded its facilities by adding 50 new X-ray machines in various airports and seaports nationwide.
Fifteen units of fixed baggage X-ray machines, 25 units of hand-carried baggage X-ray machines, four units of mobile baggage X-ray machines, and six units of portal-type
X-ray machines costing more than P1.2 billion would be installed this year, said Guerrero.
“We need to immediately install and upgrade our X-ray machines to strengthen vigilance and prevent the entry of smuggled and contraband goods in the Philippines,” said Guerrero.
WITH WILLIAM B. DEPASUPIL
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