COMMISSIONER Alberto Lina of the Bureau of Customs has ordered the reopening of the Designated Examination Area (DEA) inside the privately-owned Aquarius Container Yard (ACY) in the Sasa Port in Davao City.
Located inside the DEA is a huge P250-million X-ray machine used for scanning shipping containers to check whether they carry smuggled and anti-social goods.
The machine had not been in use for five years now after the DEA was illegally closed by a former customs collector who was dismissed by the Ombudsman as a result.
Lina issued the verbal order during a visit to the Davao Port in Sasa sometime in August to acting Davao Customs Collector Ricardo Butalid.
However, Butalid initiated to conduct consultation with firms involved in the import-export business, customs brokers, civil society organizations and other stakeholders.
Butalid’s recommendation is now being awaited since his consultations have been completed almost two months ago.
The ACY (container yard) owned by businessman Rodolfo Reta was contracted by the Bureau of Customs in 2009 to house exclusively the designated examination area for 25 years.
The multi-million X-ray machine installed in the DEA is reportedly one of the more than two dozen x-ray machines worth $2.5 million dollars each.
The machines were part of a $75-million loan from China for installation in Davao and the rest of the country’s 10 biggest seaports.
According to Senator Ralph Recto, chairman of the Senate finance sub-committee, the government had allotted an additional P298 million for the machines' upkeep.
The Davao X-ray machine was rendered inutile and a virtual white elephant when former Customs collector Anju Nereo Castigador ordered it closed in connection with a multi-million peso rice smuggling attempt for which Castigador and an assistant wharfinger were ordered dismissed by the Ombudsman. Aside from being fired from work “for grave misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service,” Castigador is now facing a criminal case before the Regional Trial Court.