Port congestion eases with computer systems

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—A computerized system of handling containers in ports nationwide has helped ease congestion and the decline in storage fees being paid to the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) is negligible compared to the benefits that more efficient cargo handling is bringing to the economy.

Jay Daniel Santiago, PPA general manager, made this assessment in a meeting with reporters early last week.

Santiago was referring to the Terminal Appointment Booking System (TABS) which he credited with a more efficient flow of cargo into and out of PPA ports.

In this city, Customs officials in the Northern Mindanao area said they are pressing charges against several brokers and consignees in connection with the confiscation on Wednesday of five containers with smuggled items, including luxury cars, at the Mindanao Container Terminal in Misamis Oriental.

Alvin Enciso, head of the regional office of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service, said his office would certainly file charges against those behind the foiled smuggling.

Enciso would not identify the brokers and the consignees.

One of the containers yielded three classic Mercedes Benz and Porsche cars worth at least P4 million.

Enciso said the seizure of the cargo and the filing of charges are proof that the government is serious in its campaign against smuggling.

He warned smugglers, their cohorts and erring Bureau of Customs (BOC) personnel that there would be no letup in the antismuggling campaign.

Lawyer Roswald Joseph Pague, deputy customs collector, said the tons of pork from Europe, which were among items seized on Wednesday, violated the Food Safety Act of 2013 and are unfit for human consumption.

The frozen meat, said the regional BOC in its report, were “found to show some signs of spoilage.”

The imported goods, the BOC said, separately arrived at the port in Tagoloan town in Misamis Oriental in June.

PPA chief Santiago said while TABS resulted in “substantial decline in storage of containers in terminals” it benefited port stakeholders.

“TABS may also have benefited the traders, brokers and handlers because they would no longer think about paying for storage fees, which would later result in reduction of the cost of goods they are delivering,” according to Santiago.

“The cost there is not only the reduction of the storage time of the containers, that now there is lesser cost for shipping because they don’t have to pay for longer storage fees,” he said.

Santiago also reiterated the need to put “some order … and some system considering the limited space that we have in terms of road use and land use.”

“When entry of containers happens simultaneously, congestion will really take place,” Santiago said.

TABS is an electronic platform for booking containers in the major international ports of Manila wherein brokers need to set an appointment first online before they can visit a terminal.

“The overall response to the TABS was favorable not only because they pay less now for the storage but the traffic congestion had been eased,” Santiago said.

Enciso said the confiscation on Wednesday “is just the start of the operation” against smuggling.

“As we can see if there is no smuggling, there is no ‘tara,’ and if there is no ‘tara,’ no one will become corrupt,” he said.

“Tara,” he said, is a slang commonly used in the ports to refer to an amount or bribe money demanded by Customs personnel from brokers so contrabands could be cleared.

The rate of “tara” ranges from P200 to P10,000 per container depending on the rank of the Customs officers demanding the grease money.