7 eyed in smuggled pork pilferage

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has pinpointed seven persons, including two officials of Bureau of Customs (BOC), as perpetrators in a pilferage of smuggled cargo of frozen pork seized by police anti-smuggling agents last year.

In a report to the Department of Justice (DOJ) yesterday, the NBI said it has enough evidence against Customs chief of staff lawyer James Enriquez and Customs Auction and Cargo Disposal Division chief Facundo Bitanga.

The five other persons implicated were: Dionisio Menil, warehouseman at Port of Manila; Romeo Fernando Jr. and Diomedes Cabaluna, of Sigma Seven Storage and Warehouse (SSSW); Bonifacio Cruz and Pedrito Magsino, of MC Bro’s trading and garbage company.

The NBI has recommended malversation charges.

Reynaldo Esmeralda, NBI Deputy Director for regional operations services, said they would ask the DOJ to issue preventive suspension of all Customs officials and employees involved in the case as the NBI continue to investigate on where the pilfered pork cargo actually went.

The NBI said the two BOC officials were found to had "caused undue injury to the government in giving private party unwarranted benefits, advantage or preference in the discharge of their official, administrative or judicial functions through manifest partiality, evident bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence."

"What is apparent is neither the apprehending team of TFAS and ACDD, tasked to take custody of the seized shipment, conducted a detailed physical inventory of the seized shipment. The rule is that all seized items must be properly inventoried," the NBI report stated.

The NBI cleared Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales of any liability. "There were no evidence found during the investigation to link Commissioner Morales in the incident. Based with what we have, he has no direct link on the pilferage," Esmeralda told reporters. A further investigation would be conducted if there is new probable evidence.

About a quarter of the cargo of frozen pork and mackerel were pilfered while the four shipping containers were in Manila’s Harbor Center.

Meanwhile, Morales came to his officials’ defense, saying the NBI findings came as a surprise.

"Let me point out that in their years with the services, and to the best of my knowledge, these two men had never been charged or implicated in issues that undermine the bureau’s integrity. They have, in fact, been commended by their superiors and the public they have served," he stressed.

Still, Morales ordered Enriquez and Arcilla to answer the accusations, confident that they would clear their names.

"While I personally believe that eventually these men would be able to clarify the issues against their persons, on the strength of evidence and their official records, the interest of the bureau requires that I personally see to it that they respond to these charges as mandated by law," he said.

"Let me assure everyone that the bureau will extend its full cooperation to agencies pursuing this case as it hopes that tenets of justice like the presumption of innocence and the right to be heard, will be respected as well."