By AMADO P. MACASAET
MALAYA
MALAYA
‘We might well stop talking about fighting smuggling. It is all “palabas.” We know it. The leadership knows it.’
From the time the evils of smuggling became a hot media topic, the Bureau of Customs has been regularly sending media photos of BOC officials checking seized illicit goods.
Hardly noticed by readers and TV viewers is the fact that Customs itself values the smuggled goods in few millions, never exceeding P50 million.
We feel hoodwinked. We know that there are illicit goods valued in the hundreds of millions of pesos coming into the country. Photos of these goods, least of all the people responsible for bringing them in, are never talked about, least of all published.
This confirms the existence of protection of big-time smugglers by influential politicians. Examples are many. Who corners the smuggling of Fundador brandy? Customs authorities know who he is. I know who he is. I cannot identify him because I do not have proof.
The evidence should be gathered by Customs. The job is easy. A store, not necessarily a wine shop, selling Fundador should be asked who supplies him with the Spanish liquor.
Invariably, the store owner will say, there is a distributor who comes around regularly. His identity is definitely known to the store owner.
Customs should seek out the dealer. Ask him who supplies him Fundador. If he refuses to identify the supplier, ask him for proof that he paid the tax or tariff, presuming that he imports them himself. If he cannot produce the documents, he must immediately be charged with the crime of smuggling.
If he identifies his source or sources, Customs should go to them. Same questions are asked. Definitely this time, he will not be able to show proof of payment of duties and taxes. The failure is evidence the man is the smuggler. The absence of documents of payment of taxes and duties is incontrovertible evidence of smuggling.
There are other goods massively smuggled. One is garments and other commodities. One Chinese-Filipino who built a palatial home in Forbes but denies owning it although he lives there, has more about 200 outlets selling mostly imported goods.
Why doesn’t customs ask the man for the receipts of payment of taxes and duties if the goods are imported. If he cannot produce any, send him to trial. If he has some documents, check them against the records of Customs. Examine the copy of the receipts of payment. Chances are they are not genuine.
Customs has not questioned the man with the string of stores. Customs does not want to have proof that the man may indeed be the biggest smuggler of many goods. He has been at it since the time of President Estrada. He became even more influential during the time of Gloria Arroyo.
He has not stopped. Which is not exactly saying he also enjoys the protection of President Aquino. If he does, let us throw to the four winds his slogan of “daang matuwid”. The smuggler made it crooked. The President himself is crooked.
The truth, however, may well be that it is powerful people around the President who protect this smuggler. Or the politicians with strong, powerful connections with Malacañang.
The way we fight smugglers is through publicizing the forfeiture of small volumes of goods with correspondingly small values probably or clearly to cover the bigger ones or the biggest one.
The fight against smuggling through publicity is a smokescreen. It is squid tactics.
Which clearly and incontrovertibly shows that smuggling cannot be stopped. There is too much money in it for powerful people protecting the smugglers.
Since there is wide suspicion that the highest authorities in customs succumb to pressure from the powerful, the protectors effectively lend themselves to the crime. We have yet to see a customs commissioner or his deputies resigning irrevocably because a politician or some powerful people, maybe from Malacañang, threatened him with dismissal for running after a known smuggler.
Or the better judgment is to succumb to pressure, take the bribe money and keep the job. And his mouth shut.
The longer he stays silent, the richer he becomes. In time, he gets to be the closest friend of the protectors of the smugglers or the biggest smuggler. They all benefit from the illegal act.
It is the economy that suffers in terms of revenue loss and the resulting low productivity because many goods smuggled into the Philippines may well be produced in abundance in this country.
It is entirely possible that if media continues to denounce smuggling, either or both houses of Congress will call for an inquiry. The lawmakers will grandstand in front of TV cameras. If Congress has intelligence groups, they should be ordered to collect evidence in the manner explained above. But then again, the members of the intelligence group are human beings. If they investigate suspected smugglers, they too will be prone to accept bribes.
After taking the money, they will report to the committee concerned they found the man clean. But their pockets are lined thick with dirty or bribe money.
Still, Congress will continue to threaten an investigation. My guess is the crooked lawmaker can have the gall to send an emissary to the biggest smuggler and tell him he will get a summons to testify.
The process is repeated. The smuggler will bribe the emissary with bigger sums to be transferred to the pockets of the chairman of the committee concerned. And the members, of course.
The subject of fighting smuggling will be skillfully managed to a point where a more sensational investigation will be called. The big smuggler gets off the hook by suspending the hearing for eternity.
The smuggler goes on and makes oodles and oodles of money and share part of the loot with his protectors.
The economy suffers. Jobs are lost. Production slows down.
Who cares? Nobody really cares. We might well stop talking about fighting smuggling. It is all “palabas.” We know it. The leadership knows it.
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email: amadomacasaet@yahoo.com
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