Produce footages, Manila court orders BOC

THE Manila Regional Trial Court has directed the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the International Container Terminal Services, Inc. (ICTSI) to produce several video footages pertaining to the arrest last January 25, 2022 of a man who is now a suspect in the series of shooting incidents targeting customs personnel that already claimed two victims.

Hon. Judge Thelma Bunyi-Medina of Branch 32, Manila Regional Trial Court, acting on the “urgent” motion filed by Atty. Ricardo Andrade last February 14, 2022, also ordered the appearance before the court this March 1, 2022, of Paul Oandasan, MICP district commander of the Enforcement and Security Service (ESS/Customs Police) and Rolando Argabioso, surveillance and investigation head, ICTSI.

Andrade, from the Perdigon, Duclan, Lumbos and Associates Law Office, is the counsel for Ricmoreno Paypa Paja, who was arrested last January 25, 2020, at the MICP while allegedly “acting suspiciously” (see also Pinoy Exposé Volume 3, Issue No. 5) in the premises of the port.

At the time of his arrest, 3 customs employees have already been shot by still unidentified suspects one after the other since December 2021.

One of the victims, MICP principal appraiser, Eudes Nerpio, died after being shot in Binondo, Manila on January 7, 2022. Nerpio was followed by Ryan Balite Difuntorum, assigned as principal examiner at the Port of Manila (POM).

Difuntorum who was shot 3 times last January 14, 2022, also in Manila but luckily survived.

Based on the court’s directive, to be presented to the court are: video (CCTV) footages of the MICP/BOC open parking space between 2:00 pm up to 12 midnight; Gate back exit from 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm; the room at the BOC office where Paja was brought for initial interrogation from 4:00 pm to 12:00 midnight; and, the open parking near MICP steel parking from 2:00 pm of January 25 to 2:00 pm of the following day, January 26, 2022.

Paja has been charged under Criminal Case R-MNL-22-00972-74-CR for illegal possession of firearms and explosives (RA 10591) and violation of the Comelec gun ban, among others.

Sources said he is set to be linked specifically to the murder of Nerpio “based on witness testimony.”

Despite Paja’s arrest, the spate of violence plaguing the BOC has not abated; last January 29, 2022, four days after his arrest, a grenade was thrown at the compound of the ESS at the Port of Manila but fortunately failed to explode.

On February 9, 2022, a grenade was also thrown at the residence of Deputy Commissioner for Enforcement (DCE) Atty. Teddy Raval.

Two days later, on February 11, 2022, another employee, Gil Manlapaz, was similarly attacked in Manila by an unknown gunman. He died on the spot.

The family of Paja is convinced that the video footages being demanded by the court would help “prove” that he was innocent of the charges against him and that he was a victim of a ‘frame up’ concocted by some unscrupulous members of the BOC security service.

They maintained that the gun, grenade and even the two sachets of illegal drugs (shabu) purportedly found on him were all “planted.”

They also appealed to Comm. Rey Leonardo Guerrero to “dig deeper” into the matter, saying they have full trust and confidence in his sense of fairness and that he would not tolerate such criminal act, like the planting of evidence.

“Malaki ang tiwala namin sa kabutihan ni Comm. Guerrero at naniniwala kami na hindi niya alam ang totoong nangyari,” one of Paja’s relatives told Pinoy Exposé (see also Pinoy Exposé Volume 3, Issue No. 7).

BOCEA stages symbolic protests

The BOC employees, for their part, have started a series of symbolic protests to call attention over the climate of fear that has gripped the waterfront.

In a statement last February 14, 2021, the BOC Employees Association (BOCEA) called on all customs personnel to wear “black arm bands” as their way of protesting the violent turn of events in their workplaces.

Last Friday, February 18, 2022, BOCEA also initiated a ‘noise barrage’ at the POM during their lunch break using whistles to send the clear message that they are not going to take the incidents sitting down.

The union said they would continue with their protest activities until the “real perpetrators” have been arrested and until the attacks against them have been finally put to a stop.