Deportees to get designer clothes

Call it being deported in style.

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will distribute some 50,000 pieces of designer clothes — bearing such labels as Calvin Klein, Marks & Spencer and other posh European brand names — to deportees expelled from Malaysia with little more than the clothes on their backs.

The second-hand clothes were taken from the popular Baguio City attraction called ukay-ukay, where these clothes are sold in abundance.

Most of such clothing items sell for P10 to P200 in the underground ukay-ukay market, especially clothes manufactured by famous designer boutiques that are in good condition. Most of these used clothes are as good as new.

Customs Commissioner Antonio Bernardo turned over the 484 bales of seized used apparel the other day to the DSWD at the Customs headquarters in Port Area.

Under Republic Act 4653, foreign-sourced used clothing is banned from the country to protect the "dignity" and health of Filipinos. Under this act, the seized clothing is to be turned over to the DSWD.

"The used clothing will be distributed to the deportees, since most of them who were in detention centers left Malaysia with only their clothes on," Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman said during the turnover ceremony.

The DSWD will do more than just distribute the clothes, Soliman said. The DSWD will "fumigate" the apparel to remove "unwanted bacteria," then have the clothes "cleaned, ironed and repacked for personal distribution."

In another development at the waterfront, the Customs bureau reported the seizure of 90,000 kilos of Chinese ginger, bell peppers and carrots bound for local stores, produce which abound in the local market.

The vegetables were contained in four 40-foot container vans and consigned to Garlion Trading Corp. in Tondo, Manila. The vans arrived last Aug. 30 aboard the ship Kou Yang 203S from China.

While the Chinese produce were properly declared, they lacked the necessary importation permit.

Agriculture Undersecretary Ernesto Ordoñez inspected the cargo held at the Manila International Container Port the other day with Bernardo. Ordoñez said the influx of cheap Chinese produce into the local market is bad for the economy, since it will pull down the prices of local produce.

The vegetables were already rotting when Ordoñez and Bernardo inspected them.