BOC chief vows to end smuggling in Cebu

CEBU, Philippines — Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña issued a strong warning against smugglers yesterday as the bureau here alerted 160 container vans with a conservative value of P160 million.

BOC Cebu officer-in-charge Wivina Pumatong said several of the 160 container vans were undervalued, specifically those that contain tiles from China and luxury vehicles from Dubai and the United States.

The Cebu City government yesterday forged agreements with two operators of transport network vehicle services (TNVS) that will allow City Hall workers to avail of their services to and from work.

Uber Philippines, through its General Manager Laurence Cua, signed the agreement with Mayor Tomas Osmeña yesterday afternoon. He said it’s the company’s way of supporting the government in finding solutions to traffic.

Grab Philippines, represented by its country head Brian Cu, was also scheduled to sign a similar arrangement with the mayor, but it was delayed after the latter requested that the “exclusivity” provision of the deal be stricken off.

Osmeña, nonetheless, promised he would sign the deal with Grab immediately once the terminologies are sorted out.

Interviewed by the media, Cu thanked Osmena for pushing their partnership forward.

Osmeña said the new system will lessen the number of cars that only have drivers and no passengers.

“We want also to have a system where our City Hall employees will not have cars anymore. They will just take [this system]. Under this system, we will be able to monitor because of modern technology. Things that were not possible before. It is monitored and it is recorded and we can find out if they are making lakwatsa,” he said.

He said they are targeting to start the new system immediately and make adjustments if necessary.

“Here (Philippines), mga private cars naay mga tsuper. It means unnecessary traffic. Why? Mayor Osmeña has to leave for Manila. My car will take me to the airport. The car will come back empty. That’s waste. If I take [this system], I’ll go to the airport, that (car) will look for another passenger to come back. So will there be [fewer] cars? I think so,” Osmeña explained.

“I’m not saying the traffic will disappear but there will be less,” he added.

Under the so-called Grab for Work scheme, free transportation services will be provided for the employees of Cebu City Hall when heading to work and to reduce the congestion in parking areas, Cu said.

Uber’s services, meanwhile, will be concentrated on the Cebu City Health Department with the scheme called uberGOV, where six of their existing government vehicles will be installed with the system and be used by the department’s employees.

“[Before], one of these cars is only being used once a day by one person. With uberGOV, what we want to see if we can make those cars used more than once, maybe have them used five times, six times in a day by these employees. So that it will be more efficiently used,” said Cua. — Antoinette O. Marquito (FREEMAN)