CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – A Bureau of Customs-10 (BOC-10) official on Wednesday said the use an X-ray machine outside the designated examination area (DEA) at the Mindanao Container Terminal (MCT) sub-port in the Misamis Oriental town of Tagoloan was needed to speed up inspection procedures.
MCT sub-port Collector Elizabeth delas Llagas said they had no choice but to utilize their mobile X-ray equipment outside the DEA in order to ease the processing of incoming imported shipments.
Delas Llagas issued the statement in response to some reports questioning BOC’s practice of inspecting cargos outside the DEA, as this might be a potential opportunity for corrupt practices. A memorandum issued by then BOC Rozzano Rufino Biazon also limited the inspection within the DEA.
Delas Llagas said the overcrowding of yet-to-be examined container vans has already occurred even before she assumed office in August.
She said X-ray machine was positioned inside the MCT compound but within a few meters from the DEA–the area where container vans are being scanned and examined before the BOC could release or hold imported cargoes. At present, there are two large-scale X-ray machines operating in the MCT.
“It’s outside of DEA, but still it’s an area where it’s a Customs jurisdiction. The area is still in the Customs premises,” Delas Llagas said in an interview with local reporters.
When she was re-assigned at the MCT, Delas Llagas said almost 90 percent of the container vans that came in were tagged as “red”–meaning they have to be examined through the X-ray, and the cargoes opened by BOC personnel. Because of this, importers, especially multinational corporations, were complaining that their shipments were not released right away.
The processing period for the cargoes, Delas Llagas said, should only be three days but due to the sheer volume of the shipments, it took 12 to 16 days before container vans could be released from the MCT.
Delas Llagas said they had no choice but to utilize the second x-ray machine to ensure that there is no backlog in the processing of arrival of shipments at the MCT.
She said they did not violate any Customs policy when they decided to use the X-ray scanner outside the DEA.
The memorandum issued by Biazon remains effective, but she added that they had to do something to address the congestion at the MCT. She noted that there are about 600 abandoned container vans that the BOC has yet to open. (Jigger Jerusalem/PNA)
