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OLONGAPO City: Task Force Subic (TFS) clarified
Friday that they have not released the racehorses reported seized
Tuesday morning.
Atty. Joenel Aurelio,
administrative officer of TFS told The Manila Times that the horses
were sent to Jade Brothers ranch in San Pablo, Laguna and Cevila
Farm in Malvar, Batangas for safekeeping but clarified that the
horses were still under guard by Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG)-TFS
operatives.
“We opted to send the horses to
the ranches because we have no capability of taking care of them
here,” Aurelio added.
The horses, according to PASG-TFS,
were undervalued and wrongly declared when flown into Subic from
Australia as $800 each, when the estimated value of racehorses is
from $5,000 to $35,000.
PASG-TFS officials are also
preparing formal charges against a Subic customs official but
declined to identify the name of the said official.
Customs Commissioner Napoleon
Morales said that the horses were legally imported based on a
document submitted by Subic Port collector Marietta Zamoransos.
Customs documents identified a
certain Felizardo Sevilla Jr. of Disconnect Trading as the
consignee, and that the horses were sourced from Crispin Bennet
International Horse Transport Ltd. in Sunbury, Victoria, Australia.
Task Force Liaison Officer Atty.
Lilibeth Llagas said that they are not questioning the importation
of the horse.
“We are investigating the
misclassification of the horses since the horses are around two
years old [and] they are very ideal for racing. There is a big
difference when paying taxes for breeding horses when these are
racehorses that we’re talking about, and that is what we are
looking into,” she told The Manila Times in a telephone interview.
--Anthony Bayarong
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