Transparency, efficiency

Banana exporters seek probe on ‘special fees’ at BPI

SMALL banana exporters in Davao Region urged the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI)-Quarantine Service Office at Sasa Port in Davao City to improve its services through transparency and efficiency.

Last July 22, a group of small banana exporters, who refused to be named, reached out with this writer to reiterate their plea to investigate the office, claiming they have been victims of extortion and corruption by the personnel of the agency collecting “special fees.”

They admitted that they are among those 200 complaining small banana exporters that Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Emmanuel “Manny” Piñol referred in his Facebook post last July 17.

“We understand that there are fees, mandated by the law, that we ought to pay upon exporting but what they are asking were too much,” they said.

“It is entirely okay with us to pay for reimbursements for the Plant Quarantine inspectors but they went beyond what is required,” they added.

The group said that when they started exporting in 2012, the Quarantine office is collecting P2,000 per inspector from Panabo City to Sasa.

In a week, average container up for export is at 10 to 12 containers, which would require some five inspectors.

“That would mean a total of P10,000 for the 10 containers plus a P750 for a Phytosanitary Certificate and a regulatory fee (RF) of P840, this would sum up to P 11,590,” they said adding that only the RF has an official receipt issuance.

They compared that when they consulted in Manila main office, only P12 per kilometer must be collected for transportation expenses in car or jeep hire and Phytosanitary Certificate is not being charged.

Distance from Panabo City to Sasa is estimated at 23 kilometers.

Under Presidential Decree No. 1433 or Plant Quarantine Decree of 1978 and DA administrative order no. 1 series of 2001 payment for overtime services and reimbursements of meals, transportation, lodging and other expenses are considered required and legal fees to be collected by banana exporters.

Under the AO overtime rates per hour of the staffs are at P50 and meal expenses is at P75.

“For transportation expenses, car or jeep hire is at P12 per km., launch fare in the province s per nautical mile is at P20, within Metropolitan areas, each way from office/ residence to place of work or vice-versa is at P100, launch hire from shore to ship or vice versa in ordinary anchorages in

outputs is at P300, plane fare will be same stated in the airline receipt,” the AO said.

The group also said that some of the inspectors are even receiving reimbursements even they did not show up in the inspection area.

Meanwhile, BPI quarantine officer Andres Alemania, in a separate interview, denied all accusations asserting he is innocent and said he is ready for investigation.

He emphasized that he does not blame the DA secretary as he believed that Piñol was only fed by wrong information but he appealed that hopefully the secretary validate first the information before dragging names as it will destroy ones integrity.

“To those who accused us, you are welcome in our office and pinpoint who are the staffs collecting special fees from you, we are very open for investigation,” he said.

Banana exporters in the country are categorized into three, the big organized players (PBGEA), small organized players (MBFEA) and those small unorganized players. ASP