Biazon: I’ve followed Abono’s call to curb agri goods smuggling

MANILA, Philippines – Customs Commissioner Rozzano Rufino “Ruffy” Biazon said on Monday, April 8 that he has already heeded calls to strengthen his agency’s campaign against the smuggling of agricultural goods, having implemented the recommendations of the same partylist group that asked for his resignation.

Biazon said he enforced the inspection of all imported agricultural products, the issuance of the copy of the Inward Foreign Manifest and the use of the Department of Agriculture’s recommended valuation, as suggested by the Abono partylist group.

 

The customs chief said the only recommendation that they have yet to take on is having an Abono representative observe and monitor the operations of the Bureau of Customs. 

“This is because we have been asking them to send their representative to the BOC, which up to now, they have yet to comply,” said Biazon.

The partylist group said the smuggled commodities included the following:

• 600 metric tons of rice amounting to P10 billion,
• chicken and pork products worth P8 billion,
• fish and aquatic products worth P3.8 billion,
• sugar products worth P4.8 billion, and
• onion and other vegetables worth P3.5 billion.

‘Sack Visayas, Mindanao officials’

“Biazon is single-handedly making the country the smuggling capital of Asia. He should resign if he has any shame left,” Abono partylist group chairman Rosendo So said.

So added that aside from Biazon, President Benigno Aquino III must also hold Customs officials in Visayas and Mindanao accountable for failing to curb the alleged smuggling of grains from China and Vietnam.

Contraband sacks of rice are allegedly first shipped to Cebu, Davao and Cagayan de Oro then to Manila. From Manila, these are brought to Bulacan then to markets in Nueva Ecija, Baguio, Pangasinan, La Union and Isabela.

This is the exact opposite of the usual shipping route, wherein rice is brought from the Northern Luzon provinces first then to Manila, Cebu, Davao and Cagayan de Oro.

So said grains smuggled into the country are misdeclared as slag, wood wall, tiles and second-hand clothes.

So, also the director of the Swine Development Council, said they sent the Bureau of Customs and Malacañang a manifesto against smuggling, but no action has been taken.

“The manifesto was submitted to the President and to Biazon more than a month ago yet the illegal entry of grain shipments continue,” he said.

‘Rehashed’ allegations

Biazon said he would not resign, and added that these allegations are all “rehashed.” 

Biazon was also asked to resign over the alleged smuggling of P30 billion worth of oil products. He however argued this problem came up before he took on the top post in BOC in 2011.

He said international groups had even commended the operations of the BOC. 

“The observations of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) officials and the other Customs Chiefs of the world where some are contemplating of adapting the Philippine model of Customs administration, especially in the field of anti-smuggling, is a very much credible observation than the observations of some vested interest groups in the country whose only purpose is to derail the BOC reform agenda,” he said.

Sen. Francis Pangilinan, a Liberal Party member like Biazon, said calling for his resignation would not also stop the problem of smuggling in the country.

“The resignation of Ruffy Biazon will not solve the problem,” he said. “Unless the smugglers are punished, any revamp will fall short of truly solving the problem.”

“What will end smuggling is throwing smugglers behind bars by ensuring that speedy trials of those accused end in conviction and jail sentences,” he said.

Pangilinan led a Senate probe into the P450-million worth of Indian rice allegedly smuggled into the country in 2012 though the Subic Freeport zone.

Officials of the National Food Authority, Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority and BOC were investigated further for graft over the incident. Pangilinan said Biazon was not one of them.– Rappler.com