DAVAO CITY – Bureau of Customs (BoC) Davao District Collector Erastus Austria is unperturbed on the brewing issue about the so-called “Davao Group” allegedly involved in smuggling and bribery at the BoC, saying, Davao Group can even be all the stakeholders – importers, exporters – in Davao who are all legitimate businessmen.
This, as Austria shrugged off the impact of the Davao Group issue or the P6.4 million drug smuggling investigation to the BoC-Davao’s work.
“To be fair there are good soldiers at the BOC,” he said in an interview with reporters Friday after a meeting at the Eastern Mindanao Command.
He said he has also set direction and parameters to ensure efficiency and faster pace of documentation and reporting.
“The employees can work with this framework,” he added.
Austria revealed he issued an order for employees to comply within two days to submit reports.
The measures undertaken by his office, he said even resulted in higher revenue collection. He said the Port of Davao collection is up by P1.6 billion for the month.
“The Port of Davao is one with the top revenue collections,” Austria said.
Last August, BoC central office reported that it has collected more than P212.16 billion in duties and taxes for the first six months of the year, up 11.3 percent from the P190 billion reported during the same period last year. Of the 17 collection districts, 10 ports have exceeded their collection targets from January to June.
The Port of Davao collected P7.912 billion, up 20.8 percent from P6.548 billion target the report said.
Among others, Austria said there are several measures they must implement to deliver the mandate of the BoC which are collect revenues, facilitate trade, and protect borders.
He said the BoC has enhanced enforcement to ensure no illegal drugs will enter the city and other illegal contrabands.
Austria said new Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña has already issued Customs Memorandum Order No. 14-2017, which has reverted to the deputy commissioners of the Intelligence Group, Enforcement Group, and all district collectors nationwide the authority to issue alert orders.
Austria said the commissioner has also abolished the command center. BoC has also suspended the “green lane”.
Austria said all containers must now passed the yellow lane for thorough document scrutiny and the red lane for x-ray.
Under the BoC selectivity system, import products have to pass through four lanes: the super green lane products only undergo minimal inspection; those in the green lane no longer go through inspection and document verification; products in the yellow lane undergo document verification and those in the red lane go through two levels of inspection. (Lilian C. Mellejor/PNA)
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