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By Jomar Canlas and Jefferson Antiporda, Reporters
A member of the House of Representatives on
Wednesday gave a final warning to Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group
(PASG) Chief Antonio Villar Jr. that he will be arrested if he fails
to attend the chamber’s hearings next month.
In a press conference, Zambales Rep. Ma.
Milagros Magsaysay said that if Villar continues to snub House
hearings on the antismuggling group, they will cite him for
contempt and push for his arrest.
“We have no other recourse [so] we’ll have
him arrested,” Magsaysay said.
But Magsaysay said that they are now receiving
feelers that some friends of Villar are convincing him to attend the
next hearings of the House so he will not be arrested.
She said Villar should not throw his guns
against the members of the House through the media. Rather, Villar
should air his grievances or views before Congress.
“No matter how hard the question is, he should
be made to answer them as head of PASG,” she added.
The Zambales lawmaker stressed that there are
different committees now handling the investigation of the
antismuggling group, namely the Oversight Committee, the Ways and
Means Committee, the Committee on Good Government and the Committee
on the Freeport Zones.
The hearings are to determine, among others, if
the PASG and the Bureau of Customs have duplicating functions.
It was Cebu Rep. Antonio Cuenco who filed the
motion to have Villar subpoenaed while Paranaque Rep. Roilo Golez
raised the question as to how the antismuggling body spent its
P50-million fund.
Villar earned the ire of some lawmakers,
particularly Magsaysay, who accused him of having businesses inside
freeport zones.
PASG insists it earned P6.8 billion
Villar continues to boast of the achievement of
the task force he heads, insisting that they were able to generate
P6.8 billion in revenues from antismuggling operations last year.
The antismuggling group head said he has the
documents to prove the PASG generated P6.8 billion in revenues.
Villar even questioned the claim of the Customs bureau that his task
force only generated P13 million.
“I don’t know where did they get their
figures . . . P13-million is only equivalent to one smuggled luxury
vehicle,” Villar told reporters during the Usapang Daungan sa
Danarra Hote news forum on Wednesday.
Based on the accomplishment reports submitted by
the PASG to Malacañang, the task force was able to generate P743
million in taxes and duties paid from June to December 2007. The
amount’s bulk was from the payment made by PTT Philippine Corp.
and Tri-Solid.
PASG also collected P9.5 million from seized
shipments in the Port of Manila and the Manila International
Container Port, and another P4.2 million from warehouses.
According to Villar, if the petroleum companies
earlier implicated for smuggling will be charged the maximum
penalty, at least P5 billion in revenues can be generated.
Apparently, that amount is included in the P6.8-billion revenues,
which Villar claims his task force already generated.
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