WHY WON'T MALACANANG REVEAL THE LIST OF BIG-TIME SMUGGLERS TO THE PUBLIC? - Malacanang recently announced that the list of 300 big-time smugglers submitted by Customs Commissioner George Jereos will not be revealed but will be kept confidential.
This is definitely not transparency and provides an opportunity for protection money in exchange for non-prosecution.
Remember the weeks after EDSA 2 when a similar list of mostly Chinese-Filipinos became a vehicle of extortion for some Department of Justice (DOJ) officials?
In the meantime, some Customs old-timers say the list has reached the hands of President Arroyo and has been sanitized with about half being dummies or fictitious names.
They say that many of the names on the list are very close to the President, with one or two even bearing the same surname as hers.