Removal of CCBI office sought

CEBU, Philippines – The Visayas Customs Brokers Association Inc. is requesting Bureau of Customs district collector Ricardo Belmonte to order the Chamber of Customs Brokers Inc. to vacate the bureau’s building in conformity to the order of the BOC commissioner that all CCBI offices should be removed from the bureau’s premises.

VCBAI President Bensing Raguindin said in his letter to Belmonte that the CCBI office never lived up to its purpose of serving the public as a public assistance office to be manned by a licensed customs brokers on an eight-hour operation as stipulated under the Memorandum of Agreement by former district collector Lourdes Mangaoang.

“Instead it has become a resting place for personeros or customs broker representatives whose activity is to attend to its personal needs or to the transaction of the brokers they are representing,” Raguindin said.

He said that the effect of this practice becomes discriminatory to other brokers especially if the broker does not belong to the political party of the incumbent officers.

In short, Raguindin said, the office now becomes a marketing outlet for some brokers and collection office of the P10 per entry fund raising effort of CCBI.

He said that such practice is a clear violation of auditing rules of the government which prohibits the existence of a private entity in a government building.

“This is tantamount to technical malversation of government’s property especially that such office is collecting money for its private use using government property,” Raguindin said. —Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/BRP (THE FREEMAN)