BOC, NBI told: Find smuggling brains

The House committee on ways and means asked the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) yesterday to locate a certain Kimberly or Julie Gamboa, who is suspected to be behind the “illegal release” of 105 containers from the Port of Manila early this year.

Committee members led by chairman Dakila Cua of Quirino made the request after Customs officials informed them that six importer-consignee-companies to which the containers were released are identified with Gamboa.

“Could you please find her so she could shed light on this irregularity?” Cua asked BOC officials in the course of his committee’s first hearing on the controversy.

Maguindanao Rep. Honario Suangsing Jr., who has filed a resolution seeking an inquiry into the anomaly, suggested that NBI’s help be enlisted in the search for Gamboa.

The Cua panel is looking into the release of 105 containers between January and March, which Customs officials said was illegal since it did not have the clearance of BOC Commissioner Isidro Lapeña as required by a BOC regulation.

Lapeña himself ordered the “manual alert” on the containers. None of the Customs officials who attended yesterday’s hearing knew his reason for issuing a red flag.

The committee was informed that the Customs chief was in Fiji attending a conference with his chief of staff, Deputy Commissioner Gladys Rosales.

Hadzar Albani, who heads BOC’s intelligence and investigation service, said Gamboa is among “six major players in Customs.”

“I have not met her, but most Customs employees know her,” he said.

Cua recalled that during his committee’s hearings on the P6.4-billion shabu smuggling case, broker Mark Taguba mentioned Gamboa as among a few private citizens wielding considerable influence at Customs.

During the hearing, Sean James Perez, senior vice president of Asian Terminals Inc., the terminal operator at the Port of Manila, said they followed all BOC procedures in releasing the 105 containers.

“We have the documents to support this, including those lifting the alert orders on the importations,” he said.