Syndicate targeting Customs officials?

CEBU CITY — Customs district collector Billy Bibit is not entirely discounting the possibility that a syndicate is targeting officials of the bureau for "stepping on their interests."

Bibit said Customs Commissioner Antonio Bernardo "has already taken some steps to look into this. We are not saying that this is true, but it could be."

Last Thursday night, Cebu Customs deputy collector for port operations Eduardo Lao and examiner Bennett Sereno were killed in an ambush by two motorcycle-riding men.

The following day, Felipe Bartolome, Customs collector of the Manila International Container Port, survived an attack. His driver was killed.

City police chief Cecil Ezra Sandalo said they already have the names of people who might have had a hand in the ambush-killing of Lao and Sereno.

"We have leads but we will keep them to ourselves because it might affect some sectors," he said.

When pressed for details, Sandalo said these people are "familiar" in the Cebu community.

He said he expects investigators from Manila to come here to look into the killings of Lao and Sereno.

There are speculations that Lao’s death might be connected with a smuggled rice apprehension at the Bureau of Customs.

But Rico Rey Holganza, who just recently assumed his position as an investigator of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service, said Lao has not issued any alert orders for the apprehension of smuggled rice since he became deputy collector for port operations two months ago. — Freeman News Service