Friday, April 11, 2008 BOC seeks clearance to release rice shipment claimed by King
THE Bureau of Customs (BOC) Port of Cebu is seeking clearance to release the rice imported by the Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC) and claimed by Jolli International Traders Corp., represented by businessman Regan Rex King.
The Port if Cebu is seeking clearance for the release from Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales.
District Collector Ricardo Belmonte forwarded yesterday the importation documents of the rice shipment to the Office of the Customs Commissioner, for evaluation and approval of his recommendation to release the rice stocks.
Based on the inventory, there were 35,000 sacks of rice in the final count conducted by a team composed of Leonito Santiago, Gil Buzon, Dennis Adizas and Ricardo Guibao. This is equivalent to 1,750 metric tons.
Belmonte said the volume was correct “as declared” in its papers, hence there was no violation of the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines.
Belmonte said they want the rice immediately released to its owner to prevent further losses on the part of the business firm. He said the company already paid the tariff
of P27 million for the shipment.
While he admitted that there was an alert order against the rice shipment, it was only for conducting the inventory to make sure that the volume is correct.
Belmonte clarified that the rice was legally imported by PITC, a government corporation. (EOB)
