SC ruling on Davao port operations hailed

MANILA, Philippines - A Davao City councilor yesterday lauded the Supreme Court (SC) for ordering the transfer of examination of import shipments by the local district of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) from a private container yard to a Philippine Ports Authority-designated area.

In a statement, Councilor Antonio Vergara said the SC ruling was key in bringing reforms to the BOC Port of Davao under District Collector Anju Castigador, which led to an increase in last year’s collection by over P700 million.

Vergara, a former journalist, said that after the transfer of the Customs operations to the PPA-designated area, the port district exceeded its 2010 target of P3,469,732,000 and collected a total of P3,569,997,193 in import duties and taxes.

The Port of Davao under Castigador’s watch delivered P726 million more than his predecessor’s the previous year, Vergara said.

He added that the January 2011 collection of the Port of Davao reached P376,926,791, exceeding its target of P330 million by P46,926,791.

Upon orders of the SC, the BOC ended in February last year its contract with the Aquarius Container Yard of businessman Rodolfo Reta for the inspection of shipments at the Port of Davao.

Then Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales ordered the BOC’s Davao office to stop using Reta’s premises on Feb. 26, 2010 when the yard’s private security barred Customs examiners from entering the premises to institute seizure proceedings on 40 vans of rice consigned to Rapzel Enterprises.

The shipment was wrongfully declared as construction materials and was earlier placed on alert status by the BOC’s X-ray Division and by Castigador.

Vergara also expressed his support for Castigador, who has been accused of corruption in the media.

“The corruption issue leveled against Collector Anju Castigador is a compendium of lies and distortion of facts. The poor guy is being pilloried by the lawyer of the owner of Aquarius Container Yard where the examination of imported shipments was previously done,” Vergara said.

He said a new anti-corruption group was organized to ventilate the issue in public by focusing mainly on the BOC to oust Castigador.

“I will not begrudge them even if they gang up on Castigador and the BOC for as long as their charges are true. But they are crucifying the man in a public forum where he cannot even defend himself against the lies hurled against him,” Vergara said.

“Castigador was not even in Davao in those years, so how can he be held accountable for what was happening in the port?” he added.