In its continuous effort to rid itself of scalawags in its ranks, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) led an entrapment operation against one of its employees who’s trying to extort money from two student-trainees of a brokerage firm.

In an entrapment operation led by the Bureau’s Intelligence Group (IG) last Wednesday, November 12, a 12-year Customs employee Aristotle Tumala was nabbed after receiving P7,000 in marked money from two student-trainees who are seeking the release of tax-exempt imports of Panay Power in the Port of Iloilo. The trainees are graduating students who are taking up BS Customs Administration and are doing internship at a licensed brokerage firm as part of their on-the-job training course.

When the two trainees went to Tumala who is working at the office of the Tax-Exempt Division as administrative aide for the processing and releasing the endorsement for release of the shipment, Tumala allegedly said there is a problem with their papers and ‘kailangan ng ulo ng aso’. Sensing that the ‘ulo ng aso” was a bribe Tumala was asking for so they asked how much, to which Tumala allegedly said P7,000.

The trainees then reported the incident to the IG officials led by Customs Deputy Commissioner Jessie Dellosa. The entrapment operation was quickly mobilized by Dellosa together with Customs Director Willie Tolentino and the suspect was immediately apprehended after receiving the marked money. Tumala is now facing criminal and administrative charges.

“We are doing this to rid the Customs of the culture of corruption that has plagued the Bureau and to show that we mean business in reforming the BOC. This is also to show everybody especially these students that there is no room for corruption in the Bureau of Customs. You may thrive now or get away with your extortion activities but we will still get you in the end,” Dellosa said.

“We commend these students for their bravery, courage and integrity. With their full cooperation, we were able to catch this erring employee with his extortion attempt. We look forward to working with them as licensed Customs brokers who we know will live by a code of honesty, professionalism, and integrity,” Dellosa added.

According to brokers, ‘ulo ng aso’ is a code word for money because of a small design feature on the upper left portion of the P1,000 bill resembling the head of a dog.