Importers and customs brokers are crying foul over the alleged extortion activities being committed by some officials assigned at the Bureau of Customs (BoC) Accreditation Service Division.

They said their accreditation faces cancellation if they fail to pay an initial amount of P50,000 as “goodwill” fee and another P3,000 as “gate pass” fee for every container's shipment.

More than 1,000 containers arrive in the Port of Manila (PoM) and the Manila International Container Port (MICP) daily, which translate into more than P3 million in grease money for these Customs officials, the brokers said.

The alleged harassment and extortion activities were raised by a disgruntled importer, Lucio G. Sy, of Malate, Manila during a recent press conference.

“We’re not smugglers by any means. They should not subject us to this kind of harassment,” one broker said.

However, a BoC official justified the higher fee. “The price of pandesal I buy in the morning has gone up, that’s why we have to raise the accreditation fee to 50 grand,” the official was quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. said even if Congress is in recess, he will ask for a Senate inquiry on the alleged rampant mulcting operations at the BoC apparently being committed by some rogue Customs officials.

Pimentel reacted after a group of customs brokers complained to him about the alleged extortion activities at the BoC.

The distraught customs brokers told Pimentel that they were being charged a P20,000 fee for the inspection and release of every 20-foot container van, but the amount indicated in the official receipt is only P10,000.

In the same manner, they said they were billed P40,000 for every 40-foot container van, but only P20,000.00 is receipted.

They informed Pimentel that when they inquired about the difference in the amount of fees paid and the amount receipted, they were told that they were only following a directive from higher-ups. They said they were made to believe that this was part of “fund-raising” supposedly for the election expenses of certain candidates.