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SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union: Seven Indonesians and five Malaysians
crewmembers of a tugboat with a barge loaded with logs and
undeclared crude oil were arrested at the Poro Point seaport here
Thursday for alleged oil smuggling.
Edward Baltazar, district
collector of the Bureau of Customs (BOC), reported that the foreign
seamen were onboard the MT Sungai Julan 1 (tugboat) and MT Sungai
Julan 2 (barge) from Lahat Dato, Malaysia, enroute to Quan Zhuo,
China.
Baltazar identified the ship’s
captain as Muhhamad Tahir and his fellow Indonesians as Ronal
Sitompul, Haidar Ma Mur, Abdul Rahkman, Akhmad Ishak, and a certain
Nursalim and Kamin. The Malaysians were Chew Mee Thong, Handry Lak,
Samuel Bin, Irewan Bin and Mohd Arifin.
Baltazar said security guards of
the Poro Point Industrial Corp. (PPIC) caught the crew in the act of
unloading oil from the tugboat that contains 77, 058 liters of crude
oil after they reportedly docked for emergency purposes at the Pier
2. The barge was loaded with more than 1,400 logs.
Baltazar said he placed under
investigation two BOC personnel, Boy Abalos and Maceda Luquingan,
who allegedly persuaded the security guards to disregard the alleged
smuggling incident.
Based on initial investigation,
the vessel allegedly docked at Pier 2 allegedly because of bad
weather condition and for the crew to buy food and water supply.
The alleged consignee of the
illegal shipment is the North Pole Maritime Services based in Poro
Point.
--Eusebio Aguinaldo
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