Bureau of Customs lawyer Mandy Anderson
DAVAO CITY, Philippines – A lawyer of the Bureau of Customs on Thursday disclosed that an employee once went to her office representing the “Davao Group”.
Lawyer Mandy Anderson told the Senate probe on the P64-billion shabu shipment on Thursday, September 7, that the employee she could not immediately identify went to her office months ago regarding the shipment that was put on hold.
Anderson said the unnamed employee came in asking if she could help lift the “alert” status of over 60 containers of the Davao group on a certain shipment.
Senator Richard Gordon, chair of the probing committee told the newly-appointed BOC commissioner, Isidro Lapeña to present all the BOC employees’ photos to Anderson to identify the BOC employee.
According to Anderson, the said employee showed her a text message from a certain “Mans”.
“He asked me if I could help him and he showed me a text message from a certain Mans, but I told him I don’t care. Then I told him to leave my office,” Anderson said.
However, Anderson clarified that she did not know who the certain “Mans” was that the custom employee was referring to.
Lawyer Manases “Mans” Carpio and Presidential son Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte appeared on the Senate hearing on Thursday after they were invited by the Blue Ribbon Committee as customs fixer Mark Taguba II tagged them as members of the said group.
Taguba claimed that the so-called Davao group was involved in the corruption and smuggling mess of the BOC.
Meanwhile, both Duterte and Carpio asserted that they ‘do not have any knowledge’ of the said group.
READ: Pulong Duterte, Mans Carpio deny involvement in ‘Davao group’
Having no information about the “alerted” 60 containers, the Blue Ribbon Committee also ordered Lapeña to trace and determine whether the shipment was able to enter the country. (davaotoday.com)
