THE highest official of the Bureau of Customs in the Davao region and part of Region 12 was cited for indirect contempt of court and ordered jailed for defying a court order that was sustained by the Court of Appeals and later by the Supreme Court.
Cited for indirect contempt of court by the Regional Trial Court (RTC) branch 14 in Davao City was lawyer Anju Nereo C. Castigador, OIC district collector of customs of the port of Davao.
The petition to cite Castigador for contempt and order him arrested stemmed from his refusal to allow a designated examination area (DEA) in a privately-owned container yard to reopen after his earlier act of closing it last February was questioned.
In a ruling issued last Friday, September 17, RTC branch 14 Judge George E. Omelio also ordered Castigador arrested and detained at the Davao City jail in barangay Ma-a “to remain incarcerated” until he complies with the order of the court’s of last April 19.
The petition for contempt and arrest warrant was filed by Davao City businessman Rodolfo C. Reta when Castigador refused to reopen the DEA despite the August 4 ruling of the Supreme Court sustaining a Court of Appeals decision supporting a temporary restraining order earlier issued by Judge Omelio in Reta’s favor.
The TRO in effect ordered the resumption of operations within an area of the Acquarius Container Yard of Reta as the designated examination area of the government. The DEA operation, one of only two allowed in the country, is covered by a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between Reta and the Customs bureau in January last year. The MOA provides that the government could use Reta’s container yard as DEA for 25 years.
However, police failed to arrest Castigador, said to be close to some Cabinet members of the Aquino administration, as he was able to fly out of Davao hours before the Omelio order was issued. Last Wednesday, Castigador was among government officials who were present during the visit of President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino at The Marco Polo Davao.
He was seen having an animated conversation with Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa, said to be his fellow alumnus of the College of Law of the Ateneo de Manila University, and some high officials of the BOC and the Department of Finance while waiting for President Aquino to come down from the conference room of the hotel.
Earlier in the week, Castigador filed a motion for Omelio to inhibit, but the judge ignored it, branding the motion as “another form of forum shopping.”
Last month the SC sustained the order of the lower courts ordering Castigador to allow the resumption of operations at the designated examination area.
Reta’s DEA began its operations when, in 2009, the BOC, then headed by Commissioner Napoleon L. Morales, and Reta signed the MOA. The agreement was entered into by the BOC and Reta after the Philippine Ports Authority officially informed the BOC that there was no space at the PPA-administered port where examination of cargoes could be conducted. It was a declaration PPA made as early as 2005.
In his complaint, Reta charged that the sudden closure of the DEA in his container yard came hours after he reported to Castigador that 40 container vans were found to be laden with rice instead of construction materials as earlier declared by the consignee. BOC inspector Nilo A. Lim had recommended that the containers be subjected to physical examination. Instead, however, another official of the bureau ordered that they be released.
Later that day, three more Customs officials and the broker of the cargo went to the designated examination area, but left immediately for unknown reasons. Two more Customs examiners broke the seal of one of the containers, but when they noticed that someone was documenting the event, they immediately left.
An emoployee of Reta informed him that a Customs official already issued gate passes for the containers even before they could be subjected to physical examination. This prompted Reta to inform his lawyer, Manuel P. Quibod, to inform Castigador about the problem.
Castigador, instead of conducting his own investigation into the matter, accused Reta of refusing to “render service for the examination and subsequent release of containers brought to the designated examination area.”
Reta charged that Castigador suddenly stopped the operations of DEA without due process.
The businessman, who belongs to a landed gentry in Davao and part owners of the land where the Davao International Airport is located, branded Castigador’s accusation as “simply absurd and fabricated.”
“It’s my business, so I am not crazy to deprive myself of an opportunity to earn,” he said, adding that “ the reason I am usually quick in reporting irregularities to the Customs is because I want to remain in a legitimate business, although obviously some people want to get rid of me because I have been a stumbling block to their questionable activities.” [ama]
