Sino ship cleared to depart

CEBU, Philippines - After paying a penalty of close to P1.4 million yesterday, the Chinese-flagged bulk carrier MV Ming Yuan is expected to depart today after being given clearance to leave from three government agencies.

The local shipping agent of the Hong Kong-registered vessel, PHILHUA Shipping Inc., paid all the penalties imposed by the Bureau of Immigration, Bureau of Quarantine and Bureau of Customs on the ship and its 24 Chinese crewmembers for illegal anchorage off Malapascua Island since May 19.

The ship’s agent paid the penalty amounting to P1,396, 240 yesterday since it wanted the ship to depart from the Philippine waters today.

The fines paid to the Bureau of Immigration under Alien Control Officer Casimiro Madarang III totaled P1,266,240.

Each crewmember was made to pay an administrative fine of P50,000 or a total of P1.2 million and another P2,000 for waiver of exclusion ground fee or P48,000.

Each of them also paid P10 legal research fee or P240, and P500 express lane fee or P12,000.

The ship, on the other hand, received an administrative fine of P5,000 and an express lane fee of P1,000.

Clearance

Immigration officer Rey Cuizon told The FREEMAN yesterday that they received a faxed copy of the receipts as proof of the payment by PHILHUA to their office.

He said he was also instructed by Madarang to clear the foreign vessel.

Cuizon said since the agency had already paid the fines, he asked for the other requirements and that they would give a clearance to the ship as per Madarang’s instruction.

“Moari ang agent from PHILHUA nako karon para mangayo og clearance. We will be basing the clearance on our initial boarding inspection conducted two weeks ago. Mangayo na lang ko sa ubang documents kay okay na ang penalty. Naa na pod naku ang crew list and I was instructed to give them clearance,” Cuizon said.

After receiving the notice on the penalty, PHILHUA then sent a representative to the Bureau of Quarantine Cebu Station yesterday afternoon to pay the amount.

The amount was approved and signed by Bureau of Quarantine director Dr. Edgardo Sabitsana based on the recommendation by Quarantine Cebu Station director Dr. Emmanuel Labella.

The vessel has four violations in pursuant to the provisions of Republic Act 9271 or The Quarantine Act of 2004.

These violations include refusal to allow the Bureau of Quarantine to conduct the mandatory inspection of the vessel and the crew, failure  to give notice of its entry or arrival in the Philippine territory, failure to submit the required maritime declaration of health or general declaration and other required documents, and failure to secure the required quarantine clearance in compliance with Philippine health regulations.

Labella told The FREEMAN that the amount was approved by the legal officers at the main office and by Sabitsana.

“Nanawag ang PHILHUA nako ug nagpahuwat sila karun (yesterday) since they wanted to pay. They opted to pay tomorrow (today) but we could not issue a government receipt, mao nang nagpahuwat na lang gyud sila and they were able to pay already the said amount,” Labella said.

PHILHUA representative Romeo Bujawe told Labella that the agency wanted to pay all the fines since they wanted the ship to depart today.

Labella said that he has issued a clearance already based on the initial boarding inspection they conducted during the CIQ inspection the other week.

“Naa naman tay initial boarding inspection, na-examine naman nako ang crew and they are all healthy and no one has any communicable diseases, so we issued the clearance,” Labella said.

Bujawe also told Labella and Cuizon that they already paid P30,000 to the Bureau of Customs main office as penalty for their violation.

BOC Port of Cebu district collector Edward Dela Cuesta earlier said they already received the letter of explanation from the agency and are already evaluating the reasons stated by the agency regarding the vessel’s violations.

“Na-receive na namo ilang letter. Karun kay nag-evaluate pa mi sa ilang mga reasons. Siguro by Monday, mahibaw-an na kung unsa nga penalty among ihatag nila. It’s either to pay a fine or seize the vessel,” said Dela Cuesta.

Dela Cuesta had stated that MV Ming Yuan has not made any entry to the Port of Cebu or to any port of entry in the Philippines, in violation of the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines (TCCP)

Violations

In a statement, PHILHUA Shipping Inc.’s operations agent Faye Pillerva explained the violations committed by the vessel.

Pillerva said the vessel was chartered by GENESIS Shipping Co., Ltd., Korea to load about 30,000 metric tons of Moico iron sand at the Port of Isabel, Leyte tentatively scheduled from May 16 to 20, 2013.

Pillerva said that while the vessel was in transit to the Philippines, the shipper failed to confirm the readiness of the shipment.

To save on operational costs, she said the shipowners decided that the vessel, in the meantime, drop anchor off Malapascua Island, which is near the port of Isabel, to wait for the confirmation.

She stated further that the vessel had no other scheduled voyage or upcoming engagements, so it waited and gave the shipper enough time to come up with the shipment.

Unfortunately, the shipment was eventually canceled because there was no shipment.

Pillerva clarified that the vessel or the shipowners had no intention to violate any of the Philippine law. -/LPM  (FREEMAN)