TWO RANKING SBMA OFFICIALS GO ON LEAVE TO APPEASE MEDDLING SENATE
Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Chairman & Administrator Roberto V. Garcia (middle) at the press conference held hours ago where the “voluntary” leave effective Monday of SBMA Deputy Administrator for Port Operations Redentor Tuazon (left) and Sr. Deputy Administrator for Business Stefani Sano (right) were announced in connection with the alleged attempt to smuggle some 420,000 sacks of rice, worth close to half a billion pesos, from India into the country.
The Senate has conducted an inquiry on Wednesday where Senators alleged SBMA officials connived in the alleged smuggling attempt.
The Senators, however, have not tagged any Customs official or employee who could have been in on the illegal transaction, if there was really one, since SBMA is but one of several government agencies in the freeport tasked to oversee if shipments are in order, raising suspicions on vested interests and political maneuverings as behind the expose.
“Walang smuggling na magaganap kung walang kasabwat na Customs,” the official said. “We, ourselves, would not allow smuggling of any goods via the Subic Freeport,” he added.
SBMA officials who asked not to be named insist there has been no violation yet as the shipment has remained in two warehouses inside the Subic Freeport which, according to the law, particularly R.A. 7227, is not under Customs jurisdiction.
Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon, an aspirant to the senatorial line-up of the administration’s slate, however, has declared the seizure of the shipment but Amira, a century-old respected grains company in India which shipped the rice, still asserts its right and ownership of the shipment, having been paying the SBMA some $14,000 every month in warehousing rentals, a real shot in the arm of the cash-strapped government agency.
“We are a Freeport so just as long as a shipment is within our fenced area and not brought outside to the Customs zone, Customs has no jurisdiction over it,” the SBMA official stressed, “mahirap ba intindihin iyon?”
Despite the declared seizure, the fate of the shipment remains unclear at present as another senate hearing has been scheduled also on Wednesday next week.
SBMA officials are wary that the Senate inquiry appears to be a direct meddling by politicians in the business managers’ running of the Freeport, something President Noynoy Aquino must not allow, one said.
“These politicians are destroying the essence of the Subic Bay Freeport and placing its stature in the eyes of the international community in jeopardy,” one old-time department manager said.
It is also possible that the Indian government will come to the aid of Amira, which stands to lose a lot of money due to some politician and customs officials’ grandstanding and political manuevering.
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