The move of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte to sack Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) chief Nicanor Faeldon was met with relief by many who were observing and keenly watching the developments happening during the ongoing Senate hearings on the Good Conduct Time Allowance (GCTA) Law controversy. Public outrage over the reported release of former Calauan Mayor Antonio Sanchez, convicted of the rape and double murder of UPLB students Eileen Sarmenta and Alan Gomez rocked the sensitivities of the nation to the core, triggering an outrage particularly on social media.

The decisiveness of how the President handled it is classic leadership at its finest. We all know that prior to entering politics, the President was a fiscal who had extensive experience in handling many criminal cases. That is why it does not come as a surprise that he did what was necessary to stop what is perceived as an injustice.

Just a couple of days ago, a witness testified in the Senate that indeed the GCTA is for sale and many, as the witness averred, desperate to gain their freedom, opted to seek help from prison officials just so their loved ones can gain freedom.

I am sure the nation will continue to be glued to this evolving GCTA telenovela. While the whole nation is glued over this controversy, the public may have failed to notice yet another corruption case involving the Bureau of Customs (BoC) and alleged members of the construction industry.

The irony is that both BoC and BuCor, which is being investigated by the Senate, used to be headed by former BuCor director-general Nicanor Faeldon.

While the GCTA hearing is centered on getting justice for the victims of the heinous crime perpetrated by Sanchez, the alleged corruption between BoC and allegedly some steel makers is crucial for the administration since it deprives the national coffer of billions of pesos in tax revenues.

I remember the President specifically mentioned the BoC for rampant corruption during his State of the Nation speech, and axed more than 60 of its top officials and employees linked to unethical practices.

Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) chairman Dante Jimenez spilled the beans on the alleged corroboration of BoC officials and leading steel makers.

Jimenez said the PACC has suspicions that big steel importers, in collusion with BoC officials, had been manipulating the universal code used by the Customs department in exporting and importing goods.

According to the PACC chair, steelmakers have been describing the imports of cast and prime steel billets used for steel manufacturing as Grade 60 when, in fact, the orders under the same code are a mix of Grade 40 and Grade 33. They are then allegedly able to misdeclare the imported billets at a lower value.

According to a credible structural engineer and former chair of the Association of Structural Engineers of the Philippines (ASEP), Grade 60 steel bars are used for high-rise buildings, while Grade 40 is only for low-rise structures. The latter, when used as reinforcement bars to construct high-rise buildings, would not withstand high magnitude earthquakes such as the “Big One.”

Another agency that PACC had already flagged regarding the large scale “technical smuggling” of steel products is the Department of Trade and Industry, the government body that is responsible in testing and certifying steel products.

Apparently, the PACC said technical smuggling of steel products has been happening over the past 10 years due to alleged collusion between BoC officials and large steelmakers.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson is alarmed on the billions of pesos the Philippines could be losing annually to tax leakages from imports. Steel contributes a significant portion of Philippine industrial imports.

Citing World Bank data, Lacson said the Philippines may have lost P32.18 billion worth of value added taxes in 2017 alone due to “underdeclaration.”

The PACC is reportedly mulling on preparing a tax evasion case by virtue of the huge numbers of lost revenues that should have gone to the government. It is said that it could easily dwarf the Mighty Corp. case, which paid nearly P40 billion to the Bureau of Internal Revenue to settle tax deficiencies.

Jimenez acknowledged that the case, which involves steelmakers clearing their products at the Customs point of entry, despite discrepancies in the documents submitted for these items, “may be bigger than the cigarettes smuggling and tax evasion issue two years ago.”

More than anything else, I am more concerned as a condominium dweller on the quality of construction materials and steel products that are entering the country, which potentially affects the safety and lives of Filipinos. One only needs to recall the chilling video of the Chuzon Supermarket in Porac, which collapsed after a tremor rocked Central Luzon last April.

I hope the government, aside from the current GCTA case, will find time to look into the issue Jimenez raised.

Shall we wait for another high-magnitude tremor and allow buildings to collapse before we act on the quality of construction materials that are coming into the country and are used to construct our condominiums and high-rises? This condominium dweller hopes not.