Representative Adriano A. Ebcas (center) attends Monday’s committee meeting to take up the unabated smuggling of goods into the country by unscrupulous operators of customs bonded warehouses to the detriment of local manufacturers and producers and the Philippine economy. In a Senate Committee Report No. 37 issued in 2005, seventy percent (70%) of petrochemicals stored in Custom Bonded Warehouses (CBWs) are illegal importations, consequently amounting to an estimated P1.58 billion revenue loss per year. The government stands to lose more billions of pesos in the coming years if this issue is not addressed. (PR/BB)