T H U R S D AY : J U N E 2 3 , 2 0 1 6
A2 Comelec... From A1
Alvarez’s PDP-Laban, among other parties concerned, vowed to question the legality of the Comelec’s extension before the Supreme Court. The Comelec en banc had earlier voted 4-3 to extend the filing period for SOCEs until June 30 upon the request of Liberal Party and other political parties that failed to comply with the deadline. The extension came despite a recommendation from the poll body’s Campaign Finance Office to deny the LP’s request because it gave the LP an unfair advantage. In the CFO memo, Commissioner Christian Robert Lim cited Republic Act 7166 which provides that the submission of SOCE must be done within 30 days after the elections. Alvarez said the copy of the Comelec resolution “is of utmost importance” when the case challenging its legality is brought to the Supreme Court. Alvarez criticized the Comelec for violating the law as well as its own rules embodied in Comelec Resolution 9991, which ruled out late filings and affirmed that the June 8 deadline was “final and non-extendible.” “We are supposed to be a government of laws and not of men. Having said that, what’s the point of enacting laws if they will not be implemented or, worse, as in the case of the Comelec and RA 7166, the poll body becomes the primary violator of the law it is supposed to uphold and enforce?” Alvarez said. Alvarez said the law is clear that the late filing of SOCEs simply means non-filing at all. The law also provides that the non-filing of SOCE would prevent winning candidates from assuming their posts, Alvarez added. The LP and its standard bearer, Manuel Roxas II, filed their SOCEs on June 14. Observers had observed that Roxas’ failure to meet the original June 8 deadline put in peril the positions of their elected members, including Vice President-elect Leni Robredo. To dramatize his reason for the late filing, Roxas on Wednesday went to the Comelec with a small yellow dump truck containing his proof of expenses from the elections. The camp of Roxas went to the Comelec office on Wednesday carrying at least 50 black boxes of receipts and other documents in support of his SOCE, 14 days after the June 8 deadline of submission. “It is really quite a voluminous number of receipts sorted out. As you can see, those are 50 boxes. We waited for all receipts to be completed and sorted them according to categories as required by Comelec rules. That is also our explanation,” Roxas’ campaign spokesman Rep. Barry Gutierrez told the reporters in an interview. Gutierrez said Roxas may be late from filing his SOCE but he complied with the requirements for the purposes of transparency. ““We are providing the Comelec and the public the full record of what was spent during the campaign, where the contributions came from and with full compliance of the transparency requirement under the law,” Gutierrez noted. Roxas is the only presidential candidate who failed to meet the June 8 deadline of filing of SOCE, citing the voluminous amount of receipts. With Sara Susanne D. Fabunan
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editorial@thestandard.com.ph
Ports agency overturns controversial Lina deal
PPA officer-in-charge and assistant general manager for operations Raul Santos called the attention of Lina, who also sits on the board of the PPA, that the Customs chief ’s series of memoranda and administrative issuances place MNHPI in direct violation of its terminal contract with the PPA should MNHPI handle foreign cargo. Santos issued a memorandum order on June 21 in response to Lina’s June 2 memo enjoining the PPA to allow foreign vessels to dock at the Manila North Harbor. Lina later admitted he granted the NMHPI the status as an
Authorized Customs Facility or ACF to engage in international trade because its owner, businessman Ramon Ang, was a friend. Lina also insisted that his memo in favor of Ang was not a “midnight deal” but that he would have granted the AFC to his company even if it were his “last day in office or last minute in office on June 30.” But Santos reminded Lina that the Manila North Harbor has always been treated as a domestic port as mandated by Presidential Decree No. 857 or the Revised PPA Charter. “MNHPI’s contract was the result of a competitive pub-
lic bidding in 2009 where the terms of the bid parameters limit the cargo handling operations to domestic cargo only,” Santos said. “If the PPA doesn’t want to do it, then don’t,” Lina said in reaction to Santos’ memo, but did nothing to rescind his memos in favor of MNHPI. Santos’ order, PPA Memorandum Order 08–2016 dated 21 June, was issued to the Manila North port manager, harbor pilots, and all shipping lines and shipping agents. “Section 4.02, Article IV of the Contract for Development, Management, Operation and Maintenance of the Manila North Harbor between the PPA and MNHPI expressly provides that MNHPI shall provide to undertake DOMESTIC terminal services only at the Manila North Harbor,” the PPA memo said. “In view of this contractual limitation, MNHPI is prohibited from providing terminal services to foreign vessels at Manila North Harbor. Accordingly, foreign vessels cannot
Customs...
menced under the Aquino administration beginning in 2010 with 36,784 metric tons dumped into the country and steadily increased to 255,393 metric tons by 2014. “The smuggling of garlic has cost the government some P25.54 billion in lost revenues,” So said. “In 2014 alone, some 39.94 million kilos of garlic was smuggled in and flooded the markets and sold for P100 a kilo, depriving the farmers of some P3.99 billion in income,” So said. In 2014, the BOC reported only 1.07 million metric tons of rice entered into the country but the UN ComTrade, which monitored imports from the country point of origin showed some 1.71 million metric tons of rice was imported. “The UN ComTrade figures vis-a-vis Philippine government data simply show that some 630,659 metric tons of rice was smuggled into the country in 2014 with a market value of P18.9 billion,” So said. As of June 2015 under Lina’s watch, a total of P36.34 billion worth of rice, pork, chicken, sugar, onion, garlic, carrots and buffalo meat was smuggled into the country, So said. In the first half of 2015, some P10.9 billion worth of these agricultural products had been dumped into the country’s ports, he added. “In 2014, the UN ComTrade report shows 107.66 million
kilos of pork meat was imported. The Bureau of Animal Industry data show only 64.22 million kilos of pork imports, which means some 43.4 million kilos were smuggled in,” So said. Based on the BOC report, So said some 158.46 million kilos of pork was recorded but some 57.8 million kilos were misdeclared as pork offal, which has lower duties. Faeldon on Wednesday said he would shore up collections and improve basic services. He said he would speed up the computerization of Customs processes and remove the compulsory use of brokerages. To curb smuggling, Faeldon said, he would limit the “physical transaction” between Customs officers and importers. “There are at least four reforms that we are envisioning. One is we have to fast-track the computerization,” Faeldon said. “Another thing is that we want to remove the compulsory utilization of brokerage, because some unscrupulous brokers are using their services to smuggle commodities into the country. We will see what the CMTA [Customs Modernization and Tariff Act] can do to aid us in the transition from compulsory to optional usage of brokerage,” he said, referring to the recently enacted Customs Moderniza-
By Christine F. Herrera
THE Philippine Ports Authority on Wednesday rebuffed Customs Commissioner Alberto Lina and directed its port management office in Manila North Harbor to disallow the Manila North Harbor Port Inc. (MNHPI) to operate as an international port operator, citing the company’s exclusive domestic port contract with the PPA.
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or Sinag show the annual losses continued to soar under the stint of Customs Commissioner Alberto Lina in agricultural products alone. “Our data showed that Customs Commissioner Lina has not made a dent on smuggling. Rampant smuggling in five staple commodities— rice, pork meat, poultry, onions, garlic—has continued to this day,” said Sinag president Rosendo So. So said Sinag will come up with the data on smuggling under Lina’s watch. “We are still trying to verify the raw data that we have obtained from government and UN ComTrade but on its face, the data show rampant smuggling went unabated under Lina’s stint,” he said. Citing official government records, So said smuggling of agricultural products from the last five years of the Arroyo government from 2005 to 2009 amounted to P94.87 billion. The revenue losses incurred from smuggling of the same products in the last five years of the Aquino administration from 2010 to 2014 has more than doubled and totaled P198.05 billion, So said. So noted that no smuggling of garlic was reported under the Arroyo administration but smuggling com-
proceed to Manila North Harbor for purposes of anchorage and/or docking at its berth and unloading of their cargoes, among others,” it added. Under its charter, PPA is the sole regulator over the ports. “North Harbor has very low fixed fees and no variable royalties to the government. This was granted in an effort to encourage them to truly modernize North Harbor as a gateway for domestic trade,” the PPA said. On June 8, MNHPI submitted a letter to the PPA expressing its readiness to provide services to foreign vessels and to handle foreign cargo. San Miguel Corp. earlier acquired a 43.33 percent interest in MNHPI. A San Miguelowned company Petron Corp., holds another 35 percent, giving the conglomerate a 78.33 percent interest in the port terminal company. MNHPI has a 25-year contract to manage, develop and operate the 52-hectare seaport terminal. With Darwin G. Amojelar
tion and Tariff Act. To clamp down on corruption, Faeldon also plans to create a task force among employees who will be “embedded in the different sensitive posts in the BOC. He said the task force would be formed on the his first day on the job. Faeldon said they were also looking at possibly extending the conduct of pre-shipment inspections. “We are doing that already on bulk and break-bulk but we want the containerized goods to be subjected to the shipment inspection. We want to pre-determine the quantity and quality of these commodities before they leave the ports of origin,” he said. Customs counters, he added, would be set up like tellers at banks, so importers will not be able to choose the agent with which they will transact. Surveillance cameras in all offices will stream video on the internet to discourage corruption in the agency that accounts for almost one-fifth of total government revenue. To decongest the sea ports in Manila, Faeldon will push for greater utilization of the ports of Batangas and Subic for southbound and northbound commodities, respectively. “I consider this a low-lying fruit that can be easily done as long as the traders will agree because they are the ones who will be affected,” he said.