They are back! C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S Jonathan De la Cruz 12/08/2010

They are back!

C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S

Jonathan De la Cruz

12/08/2010

We have been receiving reports over the past two weeks that the big time smugglers are back and how! After months of hibernation following P-Noy’s assumption into office, we are told that these people are back with a vengeance. Quite apart from those “intercepted” chicken parts and pig organs and even meat some of which turned out to be botcha (double dead), the latest we heard is that glutinous rice by the hundreds of containers has been unloaded in the ports of Cebu, Iloilo and Cagayan de Oro.

In the case of Cebu, we are told that a minimum of 800 containers per week have been regularly unloaded since two weeks ago and set up until middle of January while the two other ports are on a “test” basis of less than a hundred each. All these are supposed to have been worked out on the strength of assurances from up high. How high that cover is has yet to be determined.

Suffice it to say that all the hyperventilated talk about putting a stop to smuggling is just that — talk. With the abolition of the PASG which was billed early on by administration officials as a “notorious gang,” the leeway given to people-in-the-loop (as they have come to be known in customs circles) has been almost complete. And the smuggling has accelerated with the advent of Christmas, so much so that if only Customs Commissioner Alvarez and his staff listen and walk around, they will probably be astounded to find out that even the give-aways they are looking forward to issue to their favorite ninongs and ninangs are — smuggled.... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20101208com4.html