Customs sets auction of abandoned goods

THE BUREAU of Customs (BOC) will auction off shortly millions of pesos worth of abandoned shipments of imported goods at the Manila International Container Port (MICP), one of the country’smajor ports.

The shipments are in 275 container vans, a number of which have been unclaimed since 1989.

The MICP is conducting an inventory of the shipments prior to the sale, which is aimed at “decongest[ing] the port and rais[ing] additional revenue for the government,” according to the bureau’s Public Information and Assistance Division (PIAD).

The BOC, a Department of Finance-attached agency, has a revenue collection target of P408.1 billion for 2014.

“A public notice will be issued and the details of the overstaying cargoes will be posted on the BOCwebsite,” said the PIAD.

In a Jan. 28 memorandum, MICP District Collector Elmir de la Cruz said the disposal of the shipments was “in compliance with Section 2601 of the Tariff and Customs Code.”

The sale, he said, was necessary “to avoid port congestion and the deterioration of sellable unclaimed cargoes.”

De la Cruz noted that since the bureau’s electronic database “does not completely reflect the complete details of the overstaying containers, the BOC’s Auction and Cargo Disposal Division should secure the list of all unclaimed cargoes based on the records of the International Container Port Services.”

Last week, the bureau announced it would also sell P17.6 million worth of smuggled goods it had earlier seized.

The confiscated items include five used luxury vehicles—four Cadillac Escalades and a Lincoln Navigator—which have a bottom price of P4.55 million.

Also to be sold at the public auction is a shipment of caustic acid worth P5.85 million, paper materials valued at P1.79 million and more than 1,700 cases of groceries and animal feed consigned to Rustan’s Supercenters Inc., among others.