Nowhere to go after Aug. 31, Customs Cebu office “critical”

CEBU, Philippines - Top officials of the Bureau of Customs in Cebu are appealing for help with their present predicament, saying they are already in “critical condition” these days.

“We are given by the Cebu Port Authority to stay in the building until the end of the month and we have nowhere to go,” said dela Cuesta in an interview with The Freeman.

Dela Cuesta said that he already made an appeal to BOC top officials in Manila to convince President Benigno Aquino III, that they be allowed to stay temporarily at the Malacañang sa Sugbo, which is actually owned by the bureau.

“Kahit temporary man lang, we will be allowed to stay there. DBM has not yet released the funding for the rental of a new building and CPA is only giving us until August 31 to stay,” dela Cuesta said.

Dela Cuesta said that if President Aquino will order the transfer within the week, they will immediately pack their things and vacate.

BOC Cebu recently earned P233,413,083.60 for the successful auction of 174,720 bags of seized smuggled rice wherein they projected a surplus of around P195 million of its target collection for this month.

“No doubt, malaki ang income namin. Kung pwede nga lang yun na lang kukunan namin para pambayad ng rental, sana ginawa na namin. Kaso lang hindi yan pwede. BOC is the second biggest revenue earner of the government at heto papalayasin na kami,” dela Cuesta lamented.

If BOC Cebu still has no place to stay after August 31, dela Cuesta said a lot of their transactions will be hampered.

BOC Cebu has surpassed its target collection by over P261 million from January to July this year.

Based on records released by BOC-Cebu deputy collector for assessment Roberto Sacramento, from January to July they were able to collect a total of P5,244,042,000 against their assigned target collection of P4,983,015,000. — (FREEMAN)