Hospitals may benefit from seized PPEs

THE Bureau of Customs (BoC) is considering distributing to government and private hospitals the personal protective equipment ( PPE) that was confiscated for being overpriced.

Customs Assistant Commissioner Jet Maronilla said the agency is coordinating with the Department of Justice (DoJ) and the National Bureau of Investigation for the legal paperwork needed for the forfeiture of the PPE, which was seized from stores and manufacturers who were selling the equipment at unacceptably high prices.

Maronilla said he talked last week with Justice Undersecretary Mark Perete in finalizing for the confiscated PPE.

He said the Customs bureau wanted to cut red tape so the PPE can be immediately distributed to hospitals and medical workers on the frontline of the battle against the coronavirus pandemic.

The DoJ said it had been coordinating with the Department of Trade and Industry, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Customs and Department of Health for the possible seizure of medical items confiscated by law enforcers.

Perete said the “items confiscated from these operations are kept and preserved in the custody of law enforcers pending preliminary investigation. These confiscated items will later be used as evidence during prosecution.”

“Howeve r, the shortage in supply of these confiscated medical items and the urgent necessity to make them available to hospital and medical facilities at the forefront of the fight against the novel coronavirus prompted the department to study the possibility of putting them to use even before the commencement of, and without jeopardizing, the prosecution of the criminal case against unscrupulous business owners,” he said.

The Customs Modernization and Tariffs Act and the Price Act allow seizure of confiscated items pending commencement of administrative and criminal proceedings.

In the meantime, Maronilla said BoC would provide the overtime (OT) pay to personnel who reported for work during this period of the coronavirus pandemic.

These are personnel who worked for the skeleton force at the BoC and they will get the OT pay aside from their usual salaries,” he said.