The lost containers
C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S |
Jonathan De la Cruz |
I will now take P-Noy at his word and take the fight against this “culture of wang-wang,” that is abuse of power and privilege, and, yes, graft and corruption, personally. I will begin by asking Customs Commissioner Lito Alvarez and his anti-smuggling (RATS) czar, Deputy Commissioner Greg Chavez, to join me in going after the hooligans, in and out of the bureau, who engineered that Houdini act resulting in the disappearance of 1,624 containers (were these 20 or 40 footers?) released from the Port of Manila and the Manila International Container Port (MICP) transiting to the Port of Batangas. These containers never got to Batangas. How did this happen at all? And where are these containers now?
As first reported by Batangas Port Collector Juan Tan, only 305 container vans being transhipped by importers Sea Eagles Trading, LCN Trading and Monvellian Enterprises from the two Manila ports to his area actually got there. The rest, 595 all in all, never reached port. Then came Customs Intelligence Chief Dino Tuason with an even more startling revelation. Based on documents in his possession, Tuason said there were actually 2,219 containers released from the Manila ports for transshipment to Batangas. So, we are not talking here of only 595 missing containers but a whooping 1,624 containing God knows what goods. These must have cost billions of pesos worth of goods and yes, an equally huge sum, maybe in the hundreds of millions at least, in grease money which oiled this Houdini operations. It is impossible for such a large number to simply disappear into the night, as it were. There must at least be a trace and it should be easy to account for these. Unless the perpetrators so organized this operation they were able to blindside everybody to look elsewhere while they covered their tracks..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110727com4.html
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