CUSTOMS Commissioner Alberto Lina promised Cebuano business owners of a more efficient and responsive bureau in his term.
Lina made the commitment on Monday during the Philippine International Seafreight Forwarders Association Cebu general membership meeting at the Casino Español in Cebu City.
The official is a returnee at the Bureau of Customs, having been appointed as commissioner in 2005 during the time of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
One of the many things he addressed is port congestion. “I promised the President that there will be no more port congestion this year,” Lina told PISFA Cebu members and Cebu’s business leaders.
He said he had personally met with the officials of BOC Cebu to discuss the problems confronting the Cebu port such as seized and overstaying cargo, which he said they are planning to auction.
The official is also looking at the possibility of diverting cargo traffic to and from the Manila International Container Terminal and the Manila South Harbor to the Subic and Batangas Ports. The same is eyed to be done in other ports experiencing problems.
Experience
PISFA members expressed confidence in Lima’s competence in fulfilling his responsibilities as the new commissioner, having been in the logistics business before joining the government.
“We really need proactive people managing our ports, who actually care if the delays are already evident. We need to have trade facilitation. That is why we welcome so much the appointment of Commissioner Lina, being a successful businessman himself. He knows the cost of just a one day delay,” said PISFA Cebu president Carmel de Pio-Salvador.
Lina founded and chairs 19 companies under the Lina Group, among them Airfreight 2100 Incorporated, Air21, U-Freight Inc., and U-Ocean Inc.
However, Salvador lamented there remain challenges confronting the industry, one of them being the regulation set by the Food and Drug Administration.
“(We, in next week’s conference) request for the extension of moratorium set by the FDA. Presently the processing is way beyond acceptable and it’s really hurting our traders. There are incidents that cargoes have been sitting at the port while waiting for the issuance of the certificate of product registrations and even just notifications,” Salvador pointed out.
She said one of Cebu’s top exporters paid almost P2 million for demurrage and storage because of this “inefficiency.”
In addition, she raised issues on container deposits paid to the shipping lines.
“As I have received so many complaints, I have met with the regional director of Bureau of Internal Revenue and discussed this predicament with him. An audit will be undertaken of all the shipping lines who have not returned or refunded the container deposits due to the importers, some dated two years ago,” Salvador added.
To address this, they are looking at securing surety bonds, with the shipping line as the beneficiary for unreturned containers.
Next month, Salvador said they will sign a memorandum of agreement with the USAID-funded Investment Ombudsman.
She said its first project with the Investment Ombudsman is to file an appeal with the Cebu Port Authority regarding the “exuberant increase” in storage charges. On March 3, a memorandum from the CPA increased the basic rates and penalties for overstaying containers by 1,800 percent to discourage overstaying cargo containers.
Under the resolution, free dwell time of import containers was reduced to five instead of six days, while the free period for export containers was reduced to four days from five days. Salvador advised that the free time storage should be xtended to 10 days.