Customs abolishes 2 units in drive vs car smuggling

MANILA, Philippines - After filing smuggling charges against a luxury car dealer, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) continues its crackdown on illegal vehicle smuggling by abolishing two units that allegedly contributed to the importation of misdeclared and undervalued high-end cars into the country.

Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez said that last Sept. 7 he issued Customs Memorandum Order 35-2010 abolishing the certificate of payment verification office (CPVO) and the certificate of payment encoding and verification unit (CPEVU).

He said he also ordered the investigation of the 12 Customs personnel who were previously assigned to the CPEVU and CPVO. They were ordered to return to their mother units while waiting for the results of the probe.

 “This is part of our rationalization program. The clearances should be devolved, I want the collectors to handle them since they are the ones responsible in meeting our collection targets,” Alvarez told reporters yesterday.

He added that by abolishing the two units, they would also avoid the duplication of functions within the bureau.

From the investigation, they intend to determine the “possible sins of omission and commission” that might have been committed by the CPVO and CPEVU employees such as giving imprimatur to the importer’s ploy of declaring the vehicles in general terms and their use of spurious invoices to justify the gross underevaluation in the import declaration entry.

These “sins” reportedly “highlight the importation of luxury vehicles and you cannot do that without the involvement of the employees from the BOC,” the commissioner added.

The third unit called the certificate of payment unit (CPU) and which was involved in the issuance of certificate of payment has been retained but has been transferred from the Office of the Commissioner to the Office of the Deputy Commissioner for Management Information System and Technology Group.

The closing down of the CPVO and the CPVEU came three weeks after the BOC reportedly filed a case against Reynaldo Pazcoguin, president of Viking Haulers Inc.; Rodelito Biag, vice president; and Ofelia Pazcoguin, corporate secretary.

The agency also included in the complaint Customs broker Benjamin Valic and several unidentified persons.