Customs watching suspected smuggler

Customs Commissioner Ramon Farolan has vowed to throw out businessman Robert Uy from Customs premises at the port of Manila.

"We will come to it," Farolan told The STAR when asked whether Uy would be bodily carried out if he is found in the bureau's office at the South Harbor.

However, Farolan said Uy can still do business at the Bureau of Customs through other people because "no law prohibits him from continuing with his business."

Uy said he continues to transact business with the bureau through representatives since former Customs Commissioner Nelson Tan had banned him from the premises.

Certain people have accused Uy of dropping the name of President Estrada whenever he does business with Customs officials and other businessmen.

Uy denied that the President personally knows him, saying that he is just "a small businessman" who has been participating in biddings at the bureau since 1977.

He said he had written Farolan to request that he be allowed to enter the Customs area so he could personally do business with the bureau as he had done in the past.

Uy said lawyer Aaron Redubla, the Customs commissioner's chief of staff, told him to write a letter to Farolan requesting that the ban on him be immediately lifted.

But Farolan said he has not yet seen a letter from Uy, and that he needs to look more closely into the case because "there might be orders coming from some place else."

The STAR talked with Uy last week after he came out of Farolan's office

"No it's not true that I'm here for any business transaction," he said. "I am here because I want the ban on me lifted immediately. I have suffered enough. I have been unjustly singled out and the order has no legal basis."

He denied being a smuggler even if his name was in the list of smugglers which Malacañang released last September.

"And I am no big fish," he said. "Just small dilis. The big fish are out there. Why pick on me? I am not even an importer or a broker. I am just an ordinary bidder."

Asked why his name was on the list of smugglers released by Malacañang, he said that person is just his namesake.

"My rivals are just trying to keep me out of business so they could corner the bidding at Customs," he said. "I report bidding anomalies to (government) officials and the media."

Uy said Tan should not have banned him from the Customs area because he had not violated any law that would have justified the action.

"What specific provision of any law did I violate?" he asked. "If they see one, they should sue, not ban me from transacting legitimate business. How can I be a smuggler, when I am not an importer? I don't know how to import even a toothpick. What I know is how to bid. I am just a small businessman."

However, Uy admitted to The STAR "facilitating" the importation documents of Nueva Ecija Gov. Tomas Joson and Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis Singson.

As for presidential friend, Sebastian Chua, his reported employer, Uy said: "We are both known in the Chinese community."

Although Uy is still banned at Customs, he is still allowed to move freely within the premises without being picked up and thrown out by Customs police.

"I hope Commissioner Farolan would consider my position so I could go back to normal life." --