Smuggling ‘rife in Clark freeport zone’

By Rose De La Cruz/Manila Times

Some firms at the Clark Freeport Zone (CFZ) are being used in the smuggling of raw materials or finished products for export, with most of them usually ending up in the local market.

Voluminous reports obtained by Manila Times showed that the Clark Development Corp’s (CDC) anti-smuggling task force has been apprehending some movers and confiscating items about to be smuggled out of the ecozone.

The most recent apprehensions by the Task Force on Revenue and Tax Monitoring led to the confiscation last November 9 of an undetermined number of cut gloves and five rolls of anti-static fabric, 19 boxes of sticky mats and three boxes of cotton M-3 wiper.

On June 17, the task force seized a truckload of computer servers and accessories after the driver presented only a gate pass from Rapat of Philexcel Business Park and not a permit to bring the items out of the zone.

Arnel Maguillo, chief of the anti-smuggling task force, reported at least 50 cases of interceptions and confiscations of goods about to be smuggled out of the zone between December 2004 and June this year.

The 50th entry of the group’s accomplishment report said: “Secured all evidences regarding shipment of luxury cars (brand-new 2-door Gallardo Lamborghini worth $167,850 or P7.4mn) coming from Dubai via Subic and arrived at Clark Customs Clearance Area last Dec 22, 2004. Submitted official report to the office of the president, task force chairman.”

The list of items that are being smuggled through Clark is long. It includes DVDs from Malaysia; laptop computers declared as computer parts, untaxed imported furniture, cell phone parts (supposed to be shipped to Singapore); untaxed assorted cloth, rolls of textiles, wines, cigarettes and other duty-free items; crystal processing, grinding stones; assorted imitation watches; medicines; Tommy Hilfiger assorted colours of women’s jackets; scrap materials; wooden and steel chairs; diesel oil; medical equipment; halogen bulbs for cars; headphone sets among others.

Vehicles moving goods from the Freeport Zone must have a Bring Out Permit (BOP) from the CDC or they face a 50,000 pesos fine, the arrest of the driver and confiscation of the cargo.

After paying the penalty, the vehicles are allowed to exit.

Under Republic Act 8748, which amended the Special Economic Zone Act of 1995, investors or locators in ecozones like CFZ cannot bring, much less sell, their products outside the ecozone.

Yet movers who were apprehended by the CDC’s Public Safety Department were found to be sourcing their items from the locators themselves.