CEBU CITY -- Will the persons responsible for the alleged loss of nearly 2,000 bags of grains please rise?
A vessel from Vietnam that delivered a rice shipment to Cebu is being held at the Cebu International Port (CIP), after the consignee complained that 1,823 sacks were missing.
The vessel Dai Phat was scheduled to leave the CIP, where it has stayed for two weeks, but the Visayan Agri Trading Philippines, through customs broker Alvin Palapo and lawyer Ralph Sevilla, objected to the Bureau of Customs' (BOC) decision to give the ship a clearance.
They said that documents submitted by the ship captain, like the cargo manifest and bill of lading, showed he had on board 78,000 bags of rice.
But only 76,177 were unloaded.
As a result, the Port of Cebu law division, under lawyer Edward James Dy Buco, ordered to hold the departure of the MV Dai Phat.
Rice importations have been more closely watched since the government lowered its importation target to between one million 1.3 million metric tons this year, the World Food Program said.
In its March 2011 bulletin, the agency reported that the Philippine private sector will be allowed to import 163,000 metric tons. The agriculture department is projecting an increase in local paddy production by 15 percent, over last year’s production levels.
With importation levels brought down, allegations of missing stocks are more pronounced.
Last June 17, Raffy Arrojo of Toledo Shipping Agency and Marine Services sent a letter to District Collector Ronnie Silvestre through Edgar Galeos, chief of the Port Operations Division.
In it, he requested a port clearance so the Dai Phat can proceed to other ports to load cargo.
Arrojo believes the BOC has no authority to detain, arrest or hold the vessel from leaving the CIP.
But Palapo and Sevilla said the BOC has the authority to hold the vessel, because they have evidence of "deliberate or unlawful discharge of manifested cargo," which is punishable under the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines.
Galeos told Silvestre, through chief of staff lawyer Dante Mararan, that the basis for holding the vessel is Section 2518 of the Tariff and Customs Code. This prohibits the unloading of manifested cargo in ports other than the designated port, which in this case is the CIP.
Galeos recommended to Silvestre that the vessel be detained for violating Section 2522 of the Tariff and Customs Code.
The law provides that the vessel will only be fined P2,000, at most, unless the disappearance of the articles was not due to the negligence of the master of the vessel.
Dy Buco agreed with the recommendation of Galeos that the vessel ought to be detained, for violating provisions of the Tariff and Customs Code.
“There is no denial on the part of the vessel master that there was short delivery and there’s no explanation also that the disappearance of the rice was not due to negligence,” Dy Buco said in his comment.
The National Food Authority (NFA) could not yet determine how Visayas Agri Trading was able to import rice of that quantity.
NFA-Central Visayas Regional Information Officer Ma. Lucia Rosales said she will look into their records to find out whether the firm is authorized by the government to import rice.
In Manila, the BOC under Commissioner Angelito Alvarez recently seized 80 20-footer container vans containing about 40,000 bags of rice, because of reports that sugar was mixed with the grains.
A vessel from Vietnam that delivered a rice shipment to Cebu is being held at the Cebu International Port (CIP), after the consignee complained that 1,823 sacks were missing.
The vessel Dai Phat was scheduled to leave the CIP, where it has stayed for two weeks, but the Visayan Agri Trading Philippines, through customs broker Alvin Palapo and lawyer Ralph Sevilla, objected to the Bureau of Customs' (BOC) decision to give the ship a clearance.
They said that documents submitted by the ship captain, like the cargo manifest and bill of lading, showed he had on board 78,000 bags of rice.
But only 76,177 were unloaded.
As a result, the Port of Cebu law division, under lawyer Edward James Dy Buco, ordered to hold the departure of the MV Dai Phat.
Rice importations have been more closely watched since the government lowered its importation target to between one million 1.3 million metric tons this year, the World Food Program said.
In its March 2011 bulletin, the agency reported that the Philippine private sector will be allowed to import 163,000 metric tons. The agriculture department is projecting an increase in local paddy production by 15 percent, over last year’s production levels.
With importation levels brought down, allegations of missing stocks are more pronounced.
Last June 17, Raffy Arrojo of Toledo Shipping Agency and Marine Services sent a letter to District Collector Ronnie Silvestre through Edgar Galeos, chief of the Port Operations Division.
In it, he requested a port clearance so the Dai Phat can proceed to other ports to load cargo.
Arrojo believes the BOC has no authority to detain, arrest or hold the vessel from leaving the CIP.
But Palapo and Sevilla said the BOC has the authority to hold the vessel, because they have evidence of "deliberate or unlawful discharge of manifested cargo," which is punishable under the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines.
Galeos told Silvestre, through chief of staff lawyer Dante Mararan, that the basis for holding the vessel is Section 2518 of the Tariff and Customs Code. This prohibits the unloading of manifested cargo in ports other than the designated port, which in this case is the CIP.
Galeos recommended to Silvestre that the vessel be detained for violating Section 2522 of the Tariff and Customs Code.
The law provides that the vessel will only be fined P2,000, at most, unless the disappearance of the articles was not due to the negligence of the master of the vessel.
Dy Buco agreed with the recommendation of Galeos that the vessel ought to be detained, for violating provisions of the Tariff and Customs Code.
“There is no denial on the part of the vessel master that there was short delivery and there’s no explanation also that the disappearance of the rice was not due to negligence,” Dy Buco said in his comment.
The National Food Authority (NFA) could not yet determine how Visayas Agri Trading was able to import rice of that quantity.
NFA-Central Visayas Regional Information Officer Ma. Lucia Rosales said she will look into their records to find out whether the firm is authorized by the government to import rice.
In Manila, the BOC under Commissioner Angelito Alvarez recently seized 80 20-footer container vans containing about 40,000 bags of rice, because of reports that sugar was mixed with the grains.
