PR/PNA
MANILA — Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has ordered newly-installed Bureau of Customs (BOC) Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero to make a fresh donation of 30,000 bags of undocumented rice shipments to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to aid in the government’s anti-poverty and disaster relief programs.
In a news release this week, the Department of Finance (DOF) said Dominguez gave the order to Guerrero after the new Customs commissioner reported that the bureau intercepted the shipment after being tagged in Zamboanga City as undocumented imported rice.
“Donate that to the DSWD. They can use that,” Dominguez told Guerrero, who attended his first Executive Committee meeting at the DOF last Nov. 5.
The 30,000 bags of rice for donation to the DSWD are on top of the 16,000 bags earlier turned over by the BOC under then-commissioner Isidro Lapeña to augment disaster relief efforts for typhoon victims, also on Dominguez’s orders.
About 9,000 bags of rice seized in the Port of Cebu were turned over by the BOC to the DSWD on Sept.14.
Another 6,921 bags in the Port of Zamboanga and 748 bags in the custody of the bureau’s Enforcement and Security Service (ESS) were also donated to the DSWD on Sept. 19 and 24, respectively.
The BOC said it also donated to the DSWD 5,040 pieces of canned goods, 109 packages of emergency survival blankets, 350 boxes of bed sheets, blankets and towels, 1,332 boxes of brand-new clothes, and 153 packages of face masks from the Manila International Container Port (MICP) last Sept. 21.
According to a BOC report to Dominguez, the Bureau will also donate used clothing of various volumes seized from the ports of San Fernando in La Union, Manila, MICP, Legazpi City, Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, Davao, and Subic.
Earlier, Dominguez directed the BOC to immediately release smuggled rice and other food items seized by the agency to the DSWD to augment ongoing government preparations before Typhoon Ompong struck Northern Luzon.
According to the Finance chief, “government-to-government transfers in emergency situations can be legally fast-tracked” as in the case of the BOC release of the seized food stocks to the DSWD for disaster relief.
Under Chapter 10, Section 1141 of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA), goods under BOC custody that are up for disposal “may be donated to another government agency or declared for official use by the Bureau, after approval of the Secretary of Finance, or sold at a public auction within 30 days after a 10-day notice posted at a public place at the port where the goods are located and published electronically or in a newspaper of general circulation.”
Also, goods suitable for shelter, food items, clothing materials and medicines “may be donated to the DSWD,” the law further states.
