Oil firm charged with P4.1-B smuggling

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Customs (BOC) yesterday filed a technical smuggling case against Jetti Petroleum Inc. for failing to pay P4.1 billion in combined dutiable value for its petroleum product importations for one year since June 2010.

Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez led the filing of the smuggling suit against Jetti before the Department of Justice (DOJ). It is the sixth oil company that has been slapped with a technical smuggling case by the BOC.

The BOC accused Jetti president Joselito Tibayan Magalona; broker and attorney-in-fact Darwin Suico; Cagayan de Oro-based broker Dario Amolata; and others for directly or indirectly aiding the oil company in the release of its various importations of diesel and unleaded fuel.

“The BOC’s Run-After-The-Smugglers (RATS) team reportedly found documents to prove that Jetti’s growth and expansion was partly achieved through the use of several schemes of deception that had deprived the government of much-needed revenues,” Alvarez said.

Between June 2010 and June this year, Jetti reportedly made several importations of various petroleum products with a combined dutiable value of P4.1 billion.

Broken down into 49 import entries that were unloaded at the Sub-Port of Mindanao International Terminal in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental, 45 of the import entries were found by RATS investigators to have been tainted with anomalies.