Cebu slays linked to rice smuggling

CEBU CITY — The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) appears to be inching closer to finally solving the rampant smuggling of rice in Cebu and the recent murder of two Customs officials.

The glimmer of hope came when it took into its custody two port workers who claimed having helped spirit out, for a fee, two container vans that were part of a 10-van rice shipment from Singapore earlier seized by Customs.

One of the workers claimed to have information that the seizure of the 10 vans may have something to do with the ambush-slaying of Customs deputy collector Eduardo Lao and examiner Bennet Soreno last July.

Reach stacker operator Arnold Glodove and transtainer operator Arnel Ondoy, both employees of the Oriental Port and Allied Services Corp. (Opascor), the sole foreign cargo handling operator at the Cebu International Port, issued sworn statements to the NBI that they were paid to help spirit out two of the 10 seized vans containing rice.

Glodove and Ondoy said they received P10,000 and P5,000, respectively, from a certain Wendel de la Fuente who allegedly promised them P100,000 for the entire 10-van shipment.

The NBI came into the picture after the loss of the two vans was discovered. The seized vans were stacked at the Cebu International Port and were supposed to be secured by the Cebu Port Authority, the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) and Opascor.

Glodove also identified a certain Rustico Fernandez, a messenger and errand boy at the CIIS, as the one who allegedly introduced him to De la Fuente.

Fernandez showed up at the NBI to deny any participation in the loss of the two vans, saying he does not have the capacity to engage in any transactions at the Cebu port. He also denied knowing Glodove and Ondoy.

But in his affidavit, Glodove alleged that Fernandez contacted him on Sept. 3 and agreed to his request for a meeting at a restaurant near White Gold.

There he was introduced to De la Fuente and two other people and was asked to help facilitate the spiriting out of the 10 vans.

Aware that the 10 vans had been seized by Customs, Glodove said he asked De la Fuente if there was truth to rumors that the seizure had something to do with the killing of Lao and Soreno.

He quoted De la Fuente as allegedly saying, "Mao bitaw na ang napulo ka van nga nadiskweduhan sa Customs (Oh, yes, the 10 vans were seized at Customs)."

Because of this, Glodove said he tried to decline participation but was eventually persuaded to join in another meeting the following day when Fernandez and De la Fuente allegedly convinced him that the "top management" of Customs and the Customs police knew about the operation.

He was then asked to contact Ondoy who was eventually persuaded to join.

On the night of Sept. 7, the plan went into effect. De la Fuente allegedly gave Ondoy the numbers of the vans that were to be taken out of the port premises. Ondoy took the two vans and loaded them onto a truck that came to pick them up.

Upon learning of the development, Opascor suspended Glodove and Ondoy with board member Jessilou Cadungog assuring the public that the company would not interfere in the NBI investigation.

Ondoy and Glodove worked for Opascor for 11 years and two years, respectively.

Glodove and Ondoy are now in the protective custody of the NBI. — Freeman News Service