Rice smuggling was rampant in the country from 2011 to 2013. It was also during these years when bribery within the Bureau of Customs (BOC) was at its worst, according to an internal report by a high-ranking Customs official.
The report, shown exclusively to GMA News, said around P5 billion in bribes, known within the bureau as “tara,” was distributed yearly from 2011 to 2013 among top Customs officials and other government officials involved in rice smuggling.
The high-ranking BOC official who authored the report, however, refused to be identified, GMA News’ “24 Oras” reported Monday evening.According to the BOC investigative report, 80 percent of the “tara” or bribe money within the BOC came from smuggled rice while the remainder came from other smuggled items.
A “tara” of P120,000 was paid to the BOC for each container van of smuggled rice, the confidential report said. Of this amount, P25,000 would allegedly go to the Customs commissioner, P8,000 to the deputy commissioner, and P4,000 to the port collector, the report said.
The rest would go to other Customs officials, government officials and personalities involved in rice smuggling, the report said.
In a telephone interview over “24 Oras”, Ruffy Biazon, who served as Customs commissioner from 2011 to 2013, said the report was based on old hearsay.
“Nung panahon na ‘yun, pinapakalat na rin ‘yan to sow destabilization sa administration ko, but no one had ever come out to substantiate ‘yang mga allegations na ganyan. Kung meron man lumalabas na report, kung official na report man ‘yan, sad to say, ang pinagbabatayan ay mga lipas na tsimis,” Biazon said.
Meanwhile, a separate confidential report conducted by another official of the BOC warned that the “tara” system might be used again by some political personalities to fund campaigns for the upcoming 2016 elections.
“Understandably, with zealous public scrutiny on the utilization of public funds, a reinvigorated ‘tara’ system in Customs looms as an expedient money-making alternative to fund 2016 political ambitions,” the report said.
Another report by a division in the BOC meanwhile said that some of the bribe money from 2011 to 2013 was used to fund the campaigns of some officials in the 2013 elections.
Reports on the alleged anomalies within the Customs bureau came amid a reported turf war between Intelligence Group deputy commissioner Jessie Dellosa and Enforcement Group deputy commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno.
Just last week, Dellosa’s office submitted a report to the Office of the President on big-time rice smuggling in the country, which allegedly involves officials of the BOC, Malacañang, National Bureau of Investigation and several lawmakers.
On Monday, Dellosa and Nepomuceno had a one-on-one, closed-door meeting to discuss the alleged anomalies in the bureau, “24 Oras” reported.
Source: gmanetwork
