Customs brokers, truckers strike vs PASG ‘abuses’ begins
Organizers of the strike led by the Professional Customs Brokers Association of the Philippines, Inc. (PCBAPI) likened the PASG to the Abu Sayyaf in “kidnapping” cargoes.
“Ang PASG di na Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group. Nagiging Presidential Abu Sayyaf Group na (The PASG is no longer the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group. It is now the Presidential Abu Sayyaf Group),” PCBAPI president Agapito Mendez Jr. said in an interview on dzBB radio.
Radio dzBB’s Carlo Mateo reported that strike organizers planned to paralyze at least 16 ports nationwide, including those in Cebu, Mactan, Davao and General Santos Cities.
Participants at the Manila International Container Port (MICP) placed streamers denouncing alleged PASG abuses at the MICP entrance, the report said.
Mendez said the strike will last indefinitely, and will cause some P200,000 in losses every day.
“Unless and until PASG is abolished or PASG chief Antonio Villar Jr. is removed from office, we will not lift the picket. This is between gangsterism and professionalism,” he said.
Villar, however, belittled the strike and denied the allegations made by the protesters.
“Kung may mapatunayan siyang [Mendez] may naniningil, sabihin niyo kaagad at pakukulong ko at pahuhuli ko (If he can prove my men are involved, just tell me. I’ll have the erring men arrested and jailed),” he said in an interview on dzBB radio.
He likewise cast aspersions on Mendez’s credibility, saying the group’s leader was not even a legitimate broker.
“Kung di na siya broker bakit siya presidente ng asosasyon na ito? Hindi siya broker (If he is no longer a broker, why is he heading an association of brokers? He is not a broker),” Villar lamented.
‘Ransom?’
The group claimed to have the support of other groups such as the Confederation of Truckers Association of the Philippines, the Visayas-Mindanao Customs Brokers Associations Inc., and National Confederation of Customs Brokers of the Philippines Inc.
Mendez claimed the PASG would seize container vans released by the Bureau of Customs, and release them in exchange for “ransom.”
The supposed ransom would include P20,000 per 20-foot container van, and P40,000 per 40-foot container van, he said.
He said such practices by the PASG are also an insult to the Bureau of Customs.
Mendez said they had sought a dialogue with the PASG but “we were not given an audience.”
Last week, the group had said its members will hold a mass action in Manila to protest the indiscriminate and illegal withholding of cargoes by the PASG.
Mendez said they are looking to paralyze the operation in and out of the ports all over the country, to get government’s attention on the PASG’s alleged abuses.
Palace supports Villar
But Malacañang dismissed last weekend the planned port strike, which it said is part of a vilification campaign against the PASG.
Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said the PASG under Villar has received much support from legitimate traders and even from the government’s anti-graft consultants.
“I think … that is [part] of the black propaganda against PASG because nakikita nating epektibo ang PASG sa pamumuno ni Undersecretary Villar sa kampanya against illegal smuggling (I think that is part of the black propaganda against the PASG. We have seen how well the anti-smuggling group performed under Villar),” Remonde said on government-run dzRB radio last Saturday.
“E-expect natin (We expect) they will mount a vilification campaign against PASG,” he added.
Remonde said the American, European and other foreign chambers of commerce “are supporting PASG and are very happy with the performance of PASG.”
He said even Hong Kong-based anti-graft consultant Tony Kwok had “expressed appreciation” for the accomplishments of the PASG.
“We are seeing a lot of support for what Undersecretary Villar is doing. Itong trabaho niya (His job) is a very difficult one,” he said. - GMANews.TV
