Open and shut cases begging prosecution

Two months after the stink, Justice Sec. Raul Gonzalez wants a probe of the theft of smuggled pork from Customs custody. He has ordered the NBI to verify if the meat, believed to be diseased, was resold to the public.

Oddly Gonzalez is telling the NBI to step in when it already did. Last Nov. 11 Customs deputy chief Celso Templo wrote NBI-Metro Manila head Rowell Lasala to find out what happened to the contraband that was supposed to have been buried in a Pampanga dump.

At any rate, it is an open and shut case. Charges should have been filed by now.

The pork arrived in four 40-footer refrigerated vans from China on Aug. 25, consigned to Asia Golden Marketing Corp. and brokered by S.M. Estrada. On Sept. 1 Customs men and quarantine veterinarians inspected the contents, with newsmen as witnesses. The cargo declared as frozen mackerel turned out to be pork in 30-kilo crates from floor to ceiling, front to back of the vans, later valued at P40 million. The inspectors secured the vans with official numbered for custody of Sigma Seven Warehousing at the Manila harbor. The Customs auction and cargo disposal unit drew up a plan, endorsed by the Port of Manila collector to Customs chief Napoleon Morales, to destroy the contraband by dumping in Sta. Rita, Pampanga.

On the arranged date of burial on Nov. 7, the quarantine vets sought entry to Sigma warehouse for routine final inspection, but were barred. The private storage holds a special appointment from Morales as custodian of confiscated goods, with Morales’s chief of staff as responsible officer. The vets were simply told that the dumping was reset for Nov. 8. When again the vets sought inspection, burying was reset for Nov. 9. On that final day, when the vets were complaining of reports that the seals had been replaced, they were told to conduct the inspection at the dump. There was no dump at Sta. Rita, it turned out. The convoy of four vans, Customs officers, guards and vets were diverted to a private fishpond in Guagua town where alerted local officials disallowed the dumping for health reasons. The vets took the opportunity to record the altered seals; the guards threw open the van doors to discover that 40 percent of the contraband was missing. When the contraband was returned to Manila, Morales ordered aides to investigate the guards allegedly for interfering in the dumping.

When the story hit the headlines, Templo, to whom the vets and guards report, called in the NBI. The National Police also stepped in on request of local hog raisers who feared that the Chinese pork, suspected to have foot-and-mouth disease, could contaminate the P20-billion industry. A raid at a warehouse in a third Pampanga town yielded the stolen meat.

The NBI has submitted initial findings. For one, the apprehending team, under Morales’s hotshot Task Force Anti-Smuggling and the Manila collector, did not inventory the cargo prior to transfer to Sigma. Neither did the auction and cargo disposal unit inspect the vans’ contents prior to send-off to Pampanga.

Clearly, Morales’s officers – the Manila collector, the auction and task force heads, the chief of staff in charge of Sigma – have lots of questions to answer. Perhaps, Morales too, must be asked why he ordered the guards instead of his subordinates interrogated for the series of lapses.

At any rate, Gonzalez’s is the third NBI probe to be requested. When Templo last Nov. 11 asked Lasala to dispatch at least five NBI agents, Morales asked for an extra six to investigate the guards. Hmm...

* * *

The apprehension of the Chinese vessel f/v Hoi Wan, loaded with hundreds of live napoleon wrasse (mameng), is another open and shut case. Strong prosecution can be built from the words no less of Nixon Edora, operations manager of South Pacific Inter-Marketing Corp.

By Edora’s admission, South Pacific chartered Hoi Wan and a second vessel, f/v Tai Sha, from Hong Kong to buy live fish from Sabah and Sibutu, the southernmost island of Tawi-Tawi province 20 minutes by boat from the Malaysian state. In a radio interview, he first claimed that both vessels arrived late Nov. in Bongao, capital of Tawi-Tawi, where it reported to the Customs and Coast Guard offices. He added that he called the agencies on Dec. 3 to report that the Hoi Wan was leaving that day for Hong Kong. In the afternoon of Dec. 21, park rangers noticed the Hoi Wan floating inside the Tubbataha Reefs National Park, a UN World Heritage Site and DENR protected area. Approaching to inform the crew of trespassing, the Hoi Wan sped off at 16 knots. Warning shots forced the Chinese to stop.

Edora claimed that mere NGO workers and not park rangers arrested the 30 Chinese crewmen. Confronted with the official incident report of the Tubbataha Management Office, he claimed that the Hoi Wan innocently was passing through en route to Hong Kong a good 11 nautical miles from Tubbataha. And confronted with findings that the crew had no permit from the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources to transport live fish, Edora then claimed they were on the way to Manila since Dec. 18 to secure such papers because the BFAR branch in Bongao has no power to issue them.

It may no longer matter that Edora’s claim of an 11 nautical mile clearance is unlikely. At that distance, the rangers would not have sighted the Hoi Wan even with binoculars, but let it pass. His contradictory claims of the Hoi Wan first being on its way to Hong Kong on Dec. 3, and then on its way to Manila on Dec. 21 may sound like shallow excuses. At a 16-knot speed, the Hoi Wan should have reached either destination in three days, but let that pass too. Edora cannot state where the Tai Sha is, save for arriving in Hong Kong sometime Dec. Lory Tan, president of World Wildlife Fund-Philippines, has verified from WWF-Hong Kong that Tai Sha never berthed there, or that Hoi Wan and Tai Sha are registered there, but let it pass as well.

One thing is clear about this affair. Hoi Wan was loaded with 2,313 live fish, 359 of which were napoleon wrasse and the rest grouper (lapulapu) and snapper (mayamaya). Under Philippine laws, one must have a permit before trading, transporting and exporting live fish – and only from accredited nurseries. Further, Philippine, Hong Kong and Malaysian laws prohibit the possession, transport and import or export of napoleon wrasse since it is listed in the UN Convention against International Trade of Endangered Species.

Malcolm Sarmiento, BFAR director, said neither the Hoi Wan nor Tai Sha had prior notice to trade in live fish. Tan, quoting WWF counterparts in Hong Kong and Malaysia, said the crew did not have exemptions for the banned napoleon wrasse either. Sarmiento said he would never issue the same in the Philippines not only because it is an endangered species but also since there is no known nursery for it.

For those two violations, Sarmiento and Tan hold responsible the owners of South Pacific Inter-Marketing, the acknowledged charterer of both vessels.

Incidentally, Edora claims that SPIM is a year-old company. Tan says it is not registered with the Bureau of Domestic Trade or the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Hoi Wan’s cargo of live fish is worth over a million pesos. Has the firm paid taxes on the trading of the cargo, or of earlier ones by Hoi Wan and Tai Sha? Edora must know the answer as operations manager.

* * *

E-mail: [email protected]