CATCH THE BIG FISH IN SMUGGLING

Special teams are being formed and 2,000 members of the police
Maritime Command have been reassigned. The government is getting tough
on smugglers, particularly those who bring in their contraband through
the porous ports outside Metro Manila. President Arroyo wants
smugglers charged with the capital offense of economic sabotage.

The Bureau of Customs has jurisdiction over the major ports.
Territorial waters, on the other hand, will be the lookout of a group
that is being organized by Transportation and Communications Secretary
Leandro Mendoza in coordination with Customs officials and the
Philippine National Police which he used to head. The 2,000 cops kept
collecting their monthly pay but could not do their job, the President
said, because they lacked patrol boats to go after smugglers. Now the
cops will have access to Coast Guard vessels. With 2,000 cops, the
entire Philippine Coast Guard and Customs personnel mobilized, can
this new team do its job?

The team is likely to intercept contraband and arrest those manning
the ships used for smuggling. What the public wants to see, however,
is the arrest of big-time smugglers, some of whom are quite notorious
and have been operating for many years. What the public dearly wants
to see is the arrest of smugglers who are known to be close to the
administration, or who have managed to inveigle themselves into the
good graces of those in power.

These smugglers bring in not only goods that are patently illegal such
as shabu but also commodities whose street prices are so low they can
kill legitimate competition: rice, sugar, automotive spare parts. Many
of these smugglers have successfully laundered proceeds of their
illegal activities. Some of them are invoking the names of powerful
people. These should provide enough impetus for the administration to
carry out an aggressive campaign to curb smuggling. And the public
won't be satisfied with the apprehension only of small fry.