Traders who have been paying huge customs duties are calling on the city’s councilors for help to end the alleged mulcting and smuggling activities at the Davao Port even as the Bureau of Customs (BOC) denies that smuggling is rampant.
In an interview with the Mirror yesterday, councilor Leo Avila yesterday said businessmen friends of his “are calling me to report more anomalies inside the port.”
“They claim they are asked to pay too much. Some goods are also unloaded and go out of the port without inspection,” he said.
“They are paying excessive fees and most of it are not covered with receipts,” he added.
Avila had earlier said the discovery of 40 containers described by the shipper as construction materials but turned out to be tons of rice was “just the tip of the iceberg.”
Yesterday, Avila said he is not pinning down the BOC “but the revelation of the legitimate traders is valid.”
“Releasing containers without the benefit of examination might cause danger to our city,” he said, pointing to the discovery of cocaine inside the port area last year.
For his part, councilor Nilo Abellera, chair of the City Council’s committee on public order and safety, said the government must do something about the smuggling activities inside the port of Davao “because it has now reached an alarming level.”
“There is fear that smugglers might exploit the loose end at the port for their business to thrive,” he said.
“The smuggling activity at the Davao port is becoming incredible. Something must be done,” he added.
But BOC Davao collector Anju Nereo Castigador told the Mirror yesterday that smuggling is not happening at the port.
“I don’t know what ‘tip of the iceberg’ the councilors are talking about. We are introducing drastic changes here but what is being spread around is about the alleged wrongdoings but not our achievements,” he said.
Castigador also said he is open to an investigation by the City Council.
“All I need is a complaint so that I can have it investigated. All that is coming out are allegations that we cannot prove because there is no complaint,” he said. |
