FRIENDS IN THE RIGHT PLACES

First there was the case of the frozen chickens, contained in 19
40-foot vans that were sneaked out of the Batangas port. Now it's 304
kilos of shabu hidden in a 20-foot container van that arrived through
the Manila International Container Port last Feb. 6. That's a lot of
shabu. Doesn't anyone bother to look at shipments arriving in
Philippine ports?

No wonder local producers and businessmen are complaining about the
smuggling of everything from rice to sugar and even vegetables.
Smuggling is becoming so rampant we might as well declare the entire
country a free port. The only ones who are made to pay the proper
duties on imported items, it seems, are foreign companies and
embassies, and anyone else without connections in the Bureau of Customs.

Philippine anti-narcotics agents will never be out of a job. When
shabu is not being manufactured right in makeshift laboratories in
Metro Manila and Central Luzon, the finished product is being brought
in through the country's ports. Sometimes not all the contraband is
retrieved by the drug trafficker - the reason you may chance upon a
packet of shabu in an imported blouse or one of those exquisite
Chinese ceramic vases that have been flooding the Philippine market.

It's bad enough that cheap imported products brought in legitimately
are killing local manufacturers. The competition posed by smuggled
goods is even worse. And the worst for Philippine society is when the
contraband consists of prohibited items such as shabu. This cannot be
possible without the connivance of Customs personnel. Every
administration has vowed to clean up this bureau, which is perceived
by the public - and with good reason - as one of the most corrupt
government agencies. As recent developments have shown, however, the
government has made little headway in efforts to clean up the Bureau
of Customs.

The government needs a firmer hand in dealing with Customs personnel
involved in smuggling. And while the government is at it, can someone
find out why major drug busts rarely include the trafficker? The
inevitable suspicion is that drug dealers have friends not only in the
Bureau of Customs but also in law enforcement agencies.