The provisional import commodity clearance (ICC) issued for the release of 5,000 metric tons of steel rebars from China was signed by a Bureau of Products Standards official who was not an authorized signatory.
In a position paper submitted to the Customs head office, PISI asked that the alert order be maintained, and that the shipment be seized since it has no proper ICC.
It said Bureau of Product Standards provincial head Leonila Baluyut was not authorized to sign the ICC and that under the law and existing orders, “provisional” ICCs are not allowed, and that only regular ones are legitimate.
It added that the shipment must first be subjected to testing to ensure the rebars are not substandard to protect public safety. But BPS officials claimed they conducted the required testing although no industry and Customs officials were present as required.
PISI said the BPS officials got only three samples when the rules, imposed on and followed by local producers for similar volumes, require about 250 samples to be cut and tested.
PISI filed a complaint for graft last week against Baluyut and BPS chief Ann Claire Cabochan with the Ombudsman.
PISI president Roberto Cola had earlier raised the alarm about the shipment given the hurried and “secret” testing done by BPS, adding that substandard steel rebars were found in collapsed buildings and houses in Bohol and Cebu during the 2013 earthquake.
Those rebars also had no authorized logo which would identify the producer who will be liable in cases of product failure and substandard quality.
Cola said the current shipment’s logo is questionable since it is not among those in the official registry.
The shipment, worth around P95 million, was consigned to Mannage Trading Resources which was put up only last year with a capital of only P400,000.