It is unfortunate that the NBI concluded its investigations on the case of the 105 illegally released containers from the Port of Manila without getting any statements from me. What is more unfortunate is that the NBI did not unmask the real people behind the illegal scheme.
I would like to stress that if not for the 22 alert orders i issued against the subject shipments totaling 119 containers in all, the unlawful release of the 105 containers would not have been discovered. This modus would have continued unnoticed. I know that this illegal scheme is possibly happening even long before i was placed in the Bureau of Customs. Under my watch, this modus was uncovered. It was under my watch that we discovered 105 containers illegally released from the terminal, through the use of fake documents. In fact, i have filed criminal cases against 53 involved personalities and i referred to PACC the case of Port of Manila District Collector at the time for failure to observe relevant procedures that led to the unauthorized release of said shipments.
It is unclear to me why would NBI find negligence on my part when i was the one who alerted the containers. Based on existing procedure in the BOC, the release of containers from a certain port is the responsibility of the concerned officers of that port. I was hoping that their investigation would lead to finding out the truth and the people who connived to release the 105 containers from the terminal.
I leave the development of this case to the Department of Justice. I maintain that i did the right thing that was supposed to be done at that time.
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