A notorious Chinese fixer is making life difficult for some Bureau of Customs (BoC) officials and personnel, pressuring them to release multi-million peso worth of smuggled shipments seized sometime last December.
BoC insider info revealed that this “pain in the as*,” who has been a fixer for big-time smugglers for the longest time, having his heyday during the last administration.
Unfortunately, he is reportedly in a predicament now because he owes his client importers, whose contrabands are being held after being discovered “misdeclared” to avoid proper taxes due.
This gambling addict has also allegedly duped some well-meaning investors and laundered their money amounting to billions of pesos through a Chinese Mafia operating a number of casinos here and abroad.
BoC authorities have decried this fixer’s influence-peddling, harassing them through his media outlets with his published “lies and fabrications” that Malacañang might somehow give credence to.
Poorest of the poor in Tagum City
I was disheartened to discover that, while Metro Manila residents have struggled with the water shortage for a few weeks, many of our fellow Filipinos in the rural areas have had to cope without water since they were born.
One such case is that of Barangay Liboganon in Tagum City, Davao del Norte, where I found out that over 2,000 residents have never had potable water.
This barangay’s poor residents quoted authorities as saying that their village simply is “not suited for the construction of a water system.” They strongly refuse to believe that.
Why has the government neglected this community and many others?
Is it because 2,500 residents in the 612-hectare land of Barangay Liboganon are “too few” to give importance to?
Where did the public funds go that were intended to provide essential services to this Dabaweños?
White elephant or milking cow?
Ironically, I also discovered during my visit to Tagum City the unfinished construction of a flyover reportedly worth P4 billion.
The 1.6-kilometer-long flyover located at a fault line was started in 2017, and it is not even half-done yet.
I sure wish that the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) under the able leadership of Secretary Mark Villar would take a look-see at this “white elephant” in Davao del Norte.
Who the hell is the contractor responsible for this seemingly overpriced project? And, why was its P4-billion appropriation approved when it is located along the region’s fault line?
Who are the fat pigs that benefited to this anomalous transaction to build this milking cow… err, white elephant?