Three officials of the Bureau of Customs, one of them very close to Commissioner Napoleon Morales, have been suspended in connection with the seizure of millions of pesos worth of smuggled sugar and wheat flour at the Port of Manila. Those who got the axe were Eden Dandal, acting chief of the Public and Private Bonded Warehouse Division at the port; Visitacion Difontorum, principal appraiser of the Formal Entry Division (FED) of the port; and Margie Santiago, FED examiner. Dandal is allegedly Morales' fair-haired boy. Morales said the three were charged administratively for "gross neglect of duty, inefficiency and incompetence" for allegedly approving the release of the banned shipments. Somebody at Customs tipped me off that it was no less than the President who ordered the seizure. But why the President's unusual interest in the shipment? Could it be because it allegedly belongs to a couple who used to lord it over the customs bureau? The two, who are reportedly close to a Arroyo relative, are lying low now after their smuggling activities in the past were exposed.
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