‘In Between Columns’

Smugglers of cheap rice from Vietnam will soon face another problem next month. Aside from the intramural between the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group (PASG) and Customs Commissioner Boy Morales in Manila, they will have to deal with a ban for the exportation of rice in Vietnam.

This I gathered from a very reliable source.

I, however, trust smugglers to find a way of getting around this. But they will have to tiptoe around the eyes of Vietnamese authorities aside from Filipinos bureacrats.

As of the moment, players in the Philippine exportation scene have to deal with the PASG and Boy Morales problem.

Its a fact in the Philippines that a huge percentage of the imports are mis-declared. The mis-declared goods are either surplus or luxury vehicles, cheap rice, used clothings, and a host of other products.

If the government stops this, they will either stop importing or bring these cargo through "swing operations" which means direct smuggling. In effect, government revenues from customs drops.

This precisely happened in recent months when customs revenues dropped.

Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano as head of the Blue Ribbon Committee? Why not Sen. Ping Lacson so he could pursue his unfinished investigations? Or Sen. Joker Arroyo to clearly signify Senate President Manny Villar’s preference between the administration or the opposition?

I think Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano is too new in the Senate for this committee. But then, he seems more like a gray area to me. He used to be with the First Gentleman then left. Later, he started working with Lacson but now the former police chief-turned senator won’t touch Cayetano with even with stick.