9 Customs officials sacked due to smuggling

0
334

CUSTOMS Commissioner Antonio M. Bernardo relieved recently nine Port of Batangas officials following the shipment of 19 smuggled refrigerated forty-foot containers carrying chicken leg quarters.

The nine are being reassigned to less-sensitive positions pending clearance from the Commission on Elections for an exemption to the ban on transfer or reassignment of civil-service employees during the election period. Of the nine, five are to face administrative charges and the rest, criminal. The P50-million worth of shipment was unloaded at the Batangas port early last week despite a hold order from the National Meat Inspection Commission for quarantine inspection.

Bernardo said the shipment was declared dry goods but came in refrigerated container vans. It also did not carry the necessary documents such as importation permit and veterinary clearance from the Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of Animal Industry. Only five of the 19 container vans have been recovered by the BOC, while the rest were found empty at the consignee’s premises in Novaliches, Quezon City.

The BOC will also file charges against three private individuals including Ronaldo Laderas, the proprietor of the shipment, his wife Racquel Laderas, who signed the papers and Ivy Sarad, a customs broker.