BOC donates seized laptops to DepEd

CEBU, Philippines - The Bureau of Customs has donated to the Department of Education (DepEd) 3,915 laptop computers it seized in December 2011.

The laptops, entry-level ASUS units, were seized after its consignee, ORZA Marketing, undervalued and misdeclared the shipment, BOC said in a statement.

The laptops were donated to DepEd to beef up the department’s Computer Training and Educators and Resource for Students Program that aim to deploy computer packages to public elementary and high schools nationwide to support teaching and learning.

Sevilla said the specifications and features of the laptops are not suitable for business use thus it was best to donate the units to DepEd.

The DepEd program aims to give access to computer technology to the more than 20 million learners and more than 600,000 teachers across 46,603 elementary and secondary schools nationwide.

BOC Commissioner John Sevilla said the donation was approved two years ago but it took time to waive the storage, demurrage and other port charges.

Asian Terminal Inc., the operator of the Port of Manila and the shipping lines waived the charges to expedite the donation.

Sevilla said it is their goal to expedite the disposition of forfeited items so to decongest the ports and maximize returns whether in terms of revenues or other non-monetary benefits for the government and to the Filipino people.  (FREEMAN)