The Bureau of Customs (BOC) will meet with the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) on Friday to submit documents to help with investigations.
BOC Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno made this pronouncement on Wednesday after the agency issued a warrant of seizure and detention for 13 luxury cars owned by contractor couple Pacifico ‘Curlee’ and Cezarah ‘Sarah’ Discaya after it found sufficient grounds for seizure due to improper documentation of vehicles. The couple had been implicated in the anomalous flood control projects. ‘My objective for my request to meet the ICI, [headed by retired] Justice Andres Reyes, is to submit the documents and information that we have to help in their investigations,’ Nepomuceno told reporters in an interview.
Nepomuceno said that the agency’s findings on the Discayas’ luxury cars will be the first documents they will submit to the independent probe body. He also said that they will relay other findings aside from the Discayas.
With this, Nepomuceno recognized the directive of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to all government agencies to coordinate with the ICI on its investigation on anomalies in national infrastructure projects.
‘We will also ask how else we can help and if they have directions that they want to share, and we assure them of our full cooperation,’ he added. As the contractor couple attended on Tuesday the hearing of the ICI in connection with anomalous flood control projects, their lawyer Atty. Cornelio Samaniego III said that the couple gave a ‘tell-all’ testimony at the probe.
Meanwhile, Nepomuceno shared that the issuance of the warrant of seizure and detention came after the agency found out that from the 13 vehicles, seven have no import entry records and certificates of payment. Meanwhile the remaining six may possess import entry documents but have dubious COP or no COP at all.
Nepomuceno also said that the issuance is a formal avenue for the Discayas to prove for one last time the legitimacy of the purchases. He explained that if the family fails to do so, the vehicles will be forfeited and may be auctioned by the government. In a previous Senate blue ribbon committee hearing on flood control mess, Sarah admitted to owning 28 luxury vehicles. The BOC earlier secured these cars, with 12 of these being initially covered by a search warrant while the 16 were voluntarily surrendered by the family.