‘Moro-moro’ at the Cebu Customs office?

It’s almost a week since we saw that beautiful BMW 645 Ci sports coupe in Cebu City. However, this vehicle has since been garaged, hidden and kept from public view. I’m certain that the owner may have been embarrassed by our expose. Last Friday night, we met with Rep. Raul del Mar and he told me that he doesn’t own that vehicle because he certainly could not afford one. But today, Cebuanos are still guessing as to who owns the brand new BMW 645 Ci with an "8" plate.

Del Mar told me that he was interested in this story as it is quite embarrassing for a congressman to be parading such a luxurious vehicle in this time of grave financial crisis. Of course, it is also possible that some congressman out there may have "loaned" his license plate to a friend so that the possibly smuggled vehicle could not be apprehended. So this brings us to the question — what’s the penalty for someone using an "8" plate without any authorization? Surely, there must be a stiff penalty for such a major misrepresentation which, in reality, is really fraud.

But I do have leads (would you believe that these came from the coffeehouses of Cebu?) that the initials of the vehicle owner are H. G. and that he is rumored to be a close friend of Cebu Customs Collector Billy Bibit, who was placed there by a congressman from Mindanao. So is it any wonder when we asked Mr. Bibit in this corner who the owner of that BMW is, we only get a deafening silence from his office?

Just for the record, I checked with my friends in BMW Philippines in Manila and they told me that they only sold two such BMW coupes since it is a brand new series costing P7.5 million, and both cars are in Manila. So there you are... the legitimate dealer of BMW has no knowledge of the presence or ownership of a BMW 645 Ci in Cebu that we wrote about, so we may be right in suspecting that this vehicle may be smuggled. But just in case that car was brought in and taxes were paid, that is still allowed, but then the Cebu Customs office could very well have informed me that I was wrong and that the taxes for this vehicle had been paid. But then, how come we only get silence from the Bureau of Customs?

These days, the rumor mills are spinning fast and despite the efforts of my good friend former Gen. Roy Kyamko of Task Force Anti-Smuggling, car smuggling has become so rampant in Cebu because everyone is supposed to be on the take. So I would like to know how far up are the people getting a "cut" from car smugglers. Some would even dare say that someone high up in Malacañang is involved. Now that wouldn’t be surprising to us; after all, the Malacañang of the South has taken over the old Cebu Customs house.

Let me just add that for as long as Mr. Bibit holds the post as Cebu Customs collector, they might as well stop playing games, pretending to apprehend smugglers when in reality, they’re just doing a moro-moro and trying to make the public believe that they are really after smugglers when they are just doing this for show. Let me point out further that well-meaning friends of mine have already cautioned me not to "rock the boat" in the Cebu Customs as the people there are making so much money... and they would kill to keep this business alive. Well, so far I haven’t gotten any threats yet, which, in truth, are even more scary as they might strike without warning.

Indeed, how could we forget the dastardly killing two years ago of Deputy Customs Collector Edgardo "Wewe" Lao who was ambushed and killed (at the height of rush hour in front of two major schools), together with Customs appraiser Bennet Soreno just a few meters from the headquarters of the Philippine National Police (PNP) along Osmeña Boulevard? Stray bullets from the killers’ machine pistol also hit and killed the poor young Allan Dave Ravina from Abellana High School.

The last we heard about this case is that a certain Juan Jesus Vergel de Dios admitted to the NBI that he received P5,000 to kill the two Customs officers, and that the alleged mastermind behind all this is a Cebu Customs examiner, Arnold Famor. But then, there’s no follow-up anymore. I don’t even know if Famor has been arrested for allegedly masterminding this killing. The police aren’t even sure if De Dios is telling the truth because he said he was only the driver during the ambush and that the real gunman was actually a certain Rustico "Loloy" Fernandez. Have the police arrested both the killer and the mastermind? I don’t think so.

Until now, the mastermind of these murders is still scot-free and we can only cry out, shame on the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for no longer pursuing this case... which to my mind is even a bigger tragedy! Incidentally, the police or the NBI knew that Lao was killed in an Isuzu Patrol, a vehicle obviously not supplied to government officials. This was a question I asked two years ago... and no one bothered to give me a reply, lest the owner of that vehicle would be dragged into that murder investigation.

But today, the Lao/Soreno murders seem to have been forgotten and the parents of poor Allan Dave Ravina will never know why their child had to die so young... because corrupt old men would kill anyone who would interfere with their nefarious business. Let me say it here that we Cebuanos gave President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo (GMA) a resounding victory and she ought to start cleaning up the Bureau of Customs in Cebu.

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I learned from a text message from our good friend Batchoy Hubahib of VECO that Fr. Gregorio Pizarro, SVD, our former rector at the University of San Carlos Boy’s High School who later became president of USC, died in his sleep at the SVD Retreat House in Baguio City last Sunday. His body now lies in state at the Christ the King Seminary in Quezon City and will be buried tomorrow. May we ask our classmates in USC-BHS Class 66 and all the other USC alumni and all our pious readers to pray for the repose of his soul.

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. Bobit Avila’s columns can also be accessed through www.thefreeman.com. He also hosts a weekly talk show, "Straight from the Sky," shown every Monday, at 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.