Boat captain, 3 others nabbed for smuggling P5 million crude oil

MANILA, Philippines - A boat captain and three others were reportedly caught smuggling at least 21,000 liters of crude oil with an estimated value of P5 million at a port in Manila over the weekend.

National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Director Leocadio Santiago said the suspects have been smuggling crude oil into the country for several years but were “untouched” because of the protection of an influential person in the past administration.

Their activities deprived the government of millions of pesos in duties and taxes, he said.

“My men have been receiving monetary offers in exchange for the release of the smuggled crude oil but we politely turned them down,” Santiago said. “Instead, we filed charges against the suspects to warn others involved in the illegal smuggling that we mean business.”

He identified those arrested as boat captain Rene Isaga, 62; boat quartermaster Ardo Mallorca, 56; driver Michael Gutierrez, 36; and Joseph Santos, 43, a truck helper.

Superintendent Remus Medina, head of the NCRPO’s regional police intelligence and operations unit (RPIOU), and his men proceeded to Pier 4 of the North Harbor in Delpan, Tondo and caught the suspects while siphoning the crude oil from a barge into a waiting gasoline truck (UDC-549).

The suspects could not present papers to cover the transport and unloading of the crude oil, said Medina.

The RPIOU chief said Gutierrez was about to deliver the said crude oil to a place somewhere in Luzon where the cargo would be refined as diesel fuel.

The four men were charged with illegal trading of petroleum products and violating the oil deregulation law before the Manila prosecutor’s office. They are being held in the RPIOU detention center at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City.