Suspended Bureau of Customs – Risk Management Office (BOC-RMO) Acting Chief Larry Hilario appeared before the hearing of the House Committee on Ways and Means.
The committee is investigating the alleged shipment of P 6.4 billion worth of shabu into the Philippines from China.
Hilario denied having committed neglect of duty, which was the reason he was suspended last June by Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon.
He said, he had in fact asked BOC-Importation Assessment Service (IAS) to issue an alert order against the suspicious multiple importation entries registered by customs broker Teejay Marcellana from EMT Trading.
Marcellana had previous derogatory record at BOC.
Hilario made this move at the time he was serving as acting head of RMO from May 15 to May 19, 2017.
The request, however, was supposedly not acted upon by BOC-IAS Director Milo Maestrecampo.
If his request was granted, Hilario said, this would have resulted in a full physical examination of the shipment.
The importations were released by BOC on May 22, 2017.
When asked to comment, Faeldon said, it was the first time he heard the narration of Hilario.
Faeldon said he met with Hilario when he was suspended but this explanation did not come up.
Hilario said, in that encounter with Faeldon, he was just told that he had nothing to do with the importation that turned out to be illegal drugs.