ZAMBOANGA CITY Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco-Salazar has called on the Bureau of Customs (BoC) to create a city-wide task force with deputized law enforcement agencies who can go after smugglers. “Time and again Zamboanga City has been the hub of smuggling operations and as Mayor I am bent on stopping this economic larceny against our government. We have encountered futile efforts with the Bureau of Customs despite the Senate hearing on the disappearance of smuggled sugar a year ago,” Ms. Climaco said in a statement. The mayor made the statement after 10 trucks loaded with suspected smuggled sugar and rice, which were intercepted by police officers at a checkpoint, disappeared after these were sent back in a holding compound of a private wharf in Baliwasan where the trucks allegedly came from. Ms. Climaco said the BoC initially refused to take custody of the goods “due to lack of prior coordination.” “These (smuggling) syndicates are powerful; they built a parallel empire of their own, thereby, posing a great threat to legitimate businessmen,” she said.- — Mindanao Bureau

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR