Customs chief files new smuggling cases

In its campaign to eliminate smuggling and meet this year’s P197-billion target collection, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) yesterday filed criminal charges against six people suspected of involvement in the technical smuggling of steel products at the Port of Manila (PoM) two months ago.

Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales said five of the suspected smugglers are officers of Kingson International Trading Corp., the consignee of some 3,000 metric tons of imported reinforced steel bars from China that the BOC seized on May 13.

The suspected smugglers were identified as Kingson president Jeffrey King; vice president Anthony Joey Tan; import manager Alicia Fernandez, and directors Edgardo Martinez and Reynaldo Cesa. The complaint also included Roger Permejo of RM Permejo Customs Brokerage.

Morales said P89 million worth of steel bars were wrongfully declared by the company and were grossly undervalued.

He said the imported products were declared in the accompanying import entry as "round bars," which are raw materials for the production of steel bars, and valued at a cost of only $0.22 per kilo, which is less than the seven percent ($0.48) tariff rate levied on steel bars.

The shipment in question "was grossly undervalued because, according to our experts in the local industry, a kilo of (steel bars) costs $0.48. The importer would have gotten away with P15 million in unpaid taxes and we cannot just allow that," Morales said.

Besides wrongful declaration and undervaluation of these imports, the shipment also lacked inspection and examination by the Industry Commodity Expert, since deformed steel bars — being critical construction materials — are products covered by and subject to mandatory inspection for Import Commodity Clearance by the Bureau of Standards.

After discovering "fraudulent entries" in the import declaration of the shipment that arrived Friday, Morales said he immediately issued a warrant of seizure and detention, which led to the recovery of about 90 percent of the illegally imported steel bars in follow-up operations conducted over the weekend.

Morales earlier ordered an investigation into possible collusion between the importer, broker and some BOC officers in the foiled smuggling attempt.

This case brings to 16 the total number of cases filed before the Department of Justice (DOJ) under the bureau’s Run After the Smugglers (RATS) program. — With Jose Rodel Clapano