THE Bureau of Customs (BOC) recently filed five criminal cases before the Department of Justice involving contraband. Named respondents were six officers of private businesses, four licensed customs brokers and one customs representative.
The first case involves unlawful importation of cellular phones and accessories valued at P16,371,618.97. The respondents are Joselito Buatis, proprietor/owner of Golden Armour Enterprise; Baltazar Pulta, licensed customs broker; and Herminio Apolinario, customs representative of Pulta.
The second case involves the unlawful importation of onions valued at P4,243,514.95. Francisca Gatmaitan, proprietor/owner of Silver Rance Trading; and Gerald Villarosa, licensed customs broker were named respondents.
The third involves unlawful importation of used clothing, used shoes, used hats, used bags and used stuff toys, otherwise known as “ukay-ukay”, valued at P395,659.19. The sole respondent is Anacleto A. Duhaylungsod, proprietor/owner of 2CT General Merchandise.
The fourth and fifth cases refer to submission of fake Mayor’s Business Permits relative to the application for importer’s accreditation.
Susanna Ines T. Bayles, applicant and president of FFE International, Inc; and Teodora R. Lasaleta, licensed customs broker, who processed the application for accreditation, were named respondents in the fourth case.
The fifth case has Florentino L. Martinez, applicant and president of Metrawatt Power Corp; Fe R. Martinez, treasurer and attorney-in-fact; and Maximo D. Cabrera, customs broker as respondents.
The filing of these cases brings to 65 the total number of cases filed under the BOC’s Run After The Smugglers (RATS) Program involving 276 respondents.
Twenty-four of these cases were filed in various courts and 22 have been submitted for resolution by the DOJ. The rest are pending preliminary investigation.
Last month, the BOC missed its January target collection of P15.84 billion by P15.52 billion. The figure is, however,32% higher than what was posted in January 2007.
