The Bureau of Customs recommended to uphold the alert order on the shipment of 5,000 metric tons of deformed reinforcement steels bars from China.
A Customs memorandum order issued on June 6 showed the Race Against The Smugglers group headed by the Customs legal department recommended to commissioner Alberto Lina that the alert be maintained until the case was fully investigated and tried to the full extent of the law.
The group headed by lawyer Erwin Mendoza, acting director for legal service and executive director of Rats, said it was prudent to “thresh out the issues against the subject shipment, if warranted under the circumstances.”
The bureau issued the alert order on April 21 after the Philippine Iron and Steel Institute informed the Trade Department and Customs Bureau that the shipment of 5,000 MT of deformed reinforcing steel bars by Mannage Resources Trading Corp. that passed through Subic in Zambales province lacked permits.
It decided to maintain an “alert order,” preventing a food company from illegally importing P95 million worth of steel bars from China based on alleged “unworthiness” of the product.
The agency said it was keen on following Customs regulations to ensure that every case and transaction was aboveboard.
Mendoza also suggested to conduct a 100-percent re-test of the shipment as the first quality testing was seen compromised for lacking a witness, preferably the presence of a local industry expert.
The alert order on the shipment could not be lifted “until a 100-percent physical examination has been conducted,” he said.
“Due diligence, while it may be deemed dilatory to trade facilitation, might be something that could save lives. It is better to be safe than sorry,” he said.
Pisi, the local steel group, earlier filed graft charges against two Trade officials for allowing the entry of P95 million rebars importation despite lack of logo, proper import commodity clearance and import certificate.
The shipment is still within the jurisdiction of the bureau and remains intact and secured inside the Subic Freeport Zone.