BOC donates 3,900 laptop computers to DepEd

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Customs (BOC) has donated 3,915 laptop computers seized in December 2011 to the Department of Education (DepEd) for the agency’s computer training programs.

The BOC announced over the weekend that it turned over the computers to the DepEd to support its Computer Training and Educators and Resources for Students (CompuTERS) project.

The project aims to help more than 20 million students and more than 600,000 teachers in 46,603 elementary and secondary schools nationwide.

BOC Commissioner John Sevilla said since the features of the personal laptops are not suitable for business use, they opted to give it to the DepEd.

The entry-level ASUS laptops estimated to be worth P100 million were seized by the BOC from the alleged consignee, ORZA Marketing, for undervaluation and misdeclaration. They were misdeclared as computer parts.

Earlier, it was reported that the computers came from China and were placed inside two container vans that arrived at the Port of Manila (POM).

Section 2503 of the Tariffs and Customs Code of the Philippines mandates outright seizure and forfeiture in favor of the government if the discrepancy between what the importer declared and what was found by the Customs examiners has a difference of over 30 percent in terms of value, volume or weight.

“While the donation was approved in 2012, it took time to waive the storage, demurrage and other port charges. It is our goal to expedite the disposition of forfeited items so that we can help decongest the ports and maximize returns – whether in terms of revenues or other non-monetary benefits – for our government and our people,” Sevilla said.

POM operator Asian Terminals Inc. (ATI) and the shipping lines concerned waived their charges to expedite the donation and transfer of the laptop computers to the DepEd.