Slick White Lady

Spy Bits sources gave us information about an alleged technical smuggling case involving this “White Lady” and her cohorts, defrauding our government of millions in terms of duties and taxes. A whistle-blower recently wrote concerned authorities detailing the activities of the White Lady but it seems officials are a little hesitant because she is known to be a supporter of the administration.

According to our Spy Bits informant, Customs operatives last month caught the crew of a tanker pumping fuel to another vessel, with the amount of fuel estimated at P60 million. The crew was unable to show relevant papers to prove that the fuel has already been cleared of duties and taxes. As explained by Customs operatives, bunker fuel when loaded to a foreign vessel for international sales is tax free. But when this is loaded on a domestic vessel, this is subject to duties and taxes.

However, what was downplayed is the fact that the incident involved the company of White Lady — who then reportedly made frantic efforts to successfully kill the news. For a company to be able to buy bunker oil purportedly for international sales or for use of foreign vessels (duty free and tax free), its shipping agency must secure a Bunkering Permit from Customs — which the company did by using the services of its sister company owned by the same White Lady.  

This practice has allegedly been going on for quite some time now, with the bunker supplier using the permit of another company and selling the duty-free and tax-free oil to local shipping companies at much lower rates but enough to give them a decent profit. In short, the company commits technical smuggling by buying tax-free oil from overseas and selling it locally at much cheaper rates. These local shipping companies who get cheap fuel are then able to slash their fares and other costs on their services since they are able to easily get very cheap fuel. That’s what you call being really slick!

Mounting calls for ARMM elections

The decision of the House Committee on Suffrage and Electoral Reforms to approve a measure calling for the postponement of the ARMM elections is fanning the outrage of Mindanao residents who strongly resist the idea of having handpicked personalities to run the affairs of the region. Tawi-Tawi Congressman Nur Jaafar had earlier warned of the possibility of clashes between ethnic groups in Mindanao if the elections are not pushed through as scheduled in August.

Postponing the elections will set back efforts to strengthen democratic institutions in the region, especially in the aftermath of the grisly Maguindanao massacre where prime suspects are the once-feared warlords of the Ampatuan clan. Non-partisan groups like the Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) and the Consortium for Electoral Reforms (CER) have been batting for the conduct of automated elections in ARMM, noting that the Comelec can also use Smarmatic’s precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines to facilitate voter education.

ARMM polls have always been marred by accusations of fraud which is very easy to do in manual elections through dagdag-bawas operations that have almost been perfected by “operators” through the years – something which cannot be likely accomplished through automated elections. After all, the world witnessed and hailed the successful conduct of the first automated polls in the country last year – with only the sore losers carping about irregularities. It’s rather unfortunate to hear some unheard of groups still trying to discredit the PCOS technology and labelling the machines and the system as “inherently defective” and “flawed” without showing sufficient proof to support their claims.

According to sources, critics of the PCOS technology are no other than the losing bidders who until now cannot accept the fact that their technology plus the rival electoral mode they have been pushing – the Open Election System wherein voting and counting at the precinct level will still be conducted manually – are a throwback to the old, manual elections that are very prone to fraud. Incidentally, an e-mail trail has been circulating through the Internet, which indicates alleged complicity between the Center for People Empowerment in Governance, AES Watch and people like Mano Alcuaz and Gus Lagman (who is reportedly facing fraud charges filed at the DOJ by businesswoman Nora Bitong) in trying to gain control and revert the elections back to the old manual system.

Spy tidbit

–– News about scams perpetrated by some fashion designers here and abroad has become a hot topic over Facebook and Twitter. A lot of people are recalling their own unfortunate experiences about commissioning designers to create one-of-a-kind, personalized gowns, suits or dresses only to find out later that the so-called original creation is an off-the-rack item that was simply accessorized and retagged and passed off as a designer original.

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