By Lawrence Agcaoili

The Customs bureau expects to collect close to P8 billion from various cases filed against suspected smugglers and erring brokers and brokerage companies.

The agency?s Revenue Collection Monitoring Group is pursuing 195 pending civil cases, including 71 collection suits, where it expects to collect P6.02 billion.

Customs said the group was coordinating with the lawyers of the Prosecution and Litigation Division-Legal Service.

The agency has won its case against Chevron Philippines Inc. and E.V. Diaz Brokerage Inc., where it expects to collect about P893.8 million.

The monitoring group oversees Customs cases and oversees the enforcement and compliance of stakeholders by instilling ?fear factor? among smugglers and violators of the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines. .

Under its Run After the Smugglers program, Customs filed 92 criminal cases against 439 respondents, where it expects to collect about P1.9 billion.

Customs said 19 were filed before the Court of Tax Appeals while 16 were filed before different regional and municipal trial courts. About 57 cases are undergoing preliminary investigation and have been submitted for resolution.

Eighteen licensed customs brokers involved in the smuggling cases have been suspended.