House panel to probe Customs’ uncollected surety bonds

A committee in the House of Representatives has decided to launch an investigation on allegedly uncollected and unliquidated surety bonds from the Bureau of Customs (BOC), which has supposedly resulted in government losing billions of pesos in the past few years. Batangas Rep. Hermilando Mandanas, who chairs the House Committee on Ways and Means, said the panel will conduct the probe on the uncollected surety bonds and hold officials accountable for these “alarming" operations at the BOC. “There will be a motu proprio investigation considering the gravity of the situation as confirmed by the BOC Deputy Commissioner and an Insurance Commissioner," he said in a statement Thursday. The lawmaker was referring to statements earlier made by Insurance Commissioner John Apatan, who confirmed that the BOC was not able to collect millions worth of surety bonds because a number of surety companies had already closed down. A surety bond is a guarantee of payment issued by one party to a second party should a third party fail to meet an obligation. Valenzuela City Rep. Magtanggol Gunigundo, former chief of the BOC Anti-Smuggling Unit, for his part, said that this practice of not collecting and liquidating surety bonds dates back to the early 1990s. The inquiry will be conducted by the committee’s oversight panel and will tackle possible improvements to the pending anti-smuggling bills, he said. Mandanas meanwhile said that the probe is important since the government is currently in dire need of funds to support its various programs. “With a 2011 budget deficit projected at P256 billion, the revenue agencies need to increase their generation efforts," he said. — MRT/VS, GMANews.TV