A TURF war between the Philippine Ports Authority and the Bureau of Customs broke out Friday after Customs Commissioner Alberto Lina held his ground and asserted he has the jurisdiction to grant authority to his friend, businessman Ramon Ang, to engage in international trade, despite the PPA’s exclusive contract allowing his company to engage only in domestic trade.
“The Bureau of Customs does not grant concessions similar to those granted by PPA. Under existing laws, the opening or closing of a ‘port of entry’ is an exclusive Customs function and BoC has jurisdiction and authority over vessels engaged in foreign trade and over goods subject of importations, including its means of transport,” said Lina in a statement.
But the PPA rebuffed Lina and said the BoC may have jurisdiction over opening and closing a port of entry but Lina did not have jurisdiction over port operations and the handling of such cargo.
PPA Officer-in-charge and assistant general manager for operations Raul Santos said that under its charter, “the PPA is the sole regulator over the ports.”
Lina and Santos earlier exchanged memos to assert who has jurisdiction over port operations and cargo handling in Manila North Harbor, a 52-hectare port now being run for domestic trade by Ang’s Manila North Harbor Port Inc. (MNHPI).
In PPA Memorandum Order 08 – 2016 dated June 21, Santos issued the directive to “disallow” the MNHPI to operate as an international port operator.
Santos’ order was in response to Lina’s June 2, 2016 Customs Memorandum Order (CMO) 12-2016 enjoining the PPA, among others, to allow foreign vessels to dock at the Manila North Harbor.
Lina said he granted the NMHPI the status of Authorized Customs Facility or ACF to engage in international trade because Ang was a “friend.”
He also said the memo in favor of Ang was not a midnight deal, but that he would have granted him the ACF even if it were his “last day in office or [the] last minute in office on June 30.”
“For Customs purposes, it has exclusive control, direction and management of Customs offices, facilities, warehouses, ports, airports, wharves, infrastructure, and other premises,” Lina said Friday.
“Further, in implementing Customs laws and regulations, it has jurisdiction over all coasts, ports, airports, harbors, bays, rivers and inland waterways,” he added.
Santos reminded Lina that the Manila North Harbor has always been known and was treated as a domestic port as mandated by Presidential Decree No. 857 or the Revised PPA Charter.
“MNHPI’s contract was the result of a competitive public bidding in 2009 where the terms of the bid parameters limit the cargo handling operations to domestic cargo only,” Santos pointed out.
He also called the attention of Lina, who also sits in the board of the PPA, that the Customs chief’s series of memoranda and administrative issuances will place the MNHPI “in direct violation of its terminal contract with the PPA should MNHPI handle foreign cargo.”
Lina, on the other hand, said that as a sub-port of the Port of Manila, it can accept vessels engaged in foreign trade.
Christian Razon Gonzales, senior vice president of the International Container Terminal Services Inc., said he agreed that Customs has complete jurisdiction over opening and closing of ports of entry, but it is also clear in existing laws that PPA has jurisdiction over the handling of cargo through those ports of entry.
“Existing law, including the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act or Co-loading Act, also ensures that contracts for the handling of said cargo are not changed by Customs’ implementation of the IRRs [implementing rules and regulations,]” Gonzales said. “Nor does it permit Customs to change the terms of a publicly bid concession under another agency.”
Santos has directed the Manila North port manager, harbor pilots and all shipping lines and shipping agents to refrain from doing business with NMHPI as the move would impair NMHPI’s contract with the PPA. – With Gabrielle Binaday