Capitol willing to be consignee of donated goods

The Cebu provincial government is willing to become a consignee to donations of international agencies for victims of supertyphoon Yolanda that remain stuck at the Cebu International port.

“We can assure that these stalled donations will be released fast if the Province will be the consignee,” Davide told reporters in a press conference yesterday.

Last Jan. 12 container vans of private donations from Belgium for typhoon survivors in Leyte were stranded at the Cebu International port due to problems in compliance of Customs laws and cost of moving goods to the typhoon-hit areas.

Four months later, 175 cargo containers of rice from Algeria and seven others containing goods from other countries also got stuck at the port.

“I believe the pier area is already congested due to the presence of container vans with relief goods that haven’t been released because the storage fees haven’t been paid yet,” Davide said.

“The provincial government will verify these things and we will see if we can intercede for these [donors],” he added.

Stalled goods

Under Customs rules, goods from donors not accredited by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) will not be released or taxes will be imposed.

DSWD-7 Information Officer Kerwin Macopia said the province is qualified as a consignee.

“If there really still are stalled goods in the port area, then we need to really know who the consignees are. If it’s us then I have to take this up with our heads,” Macopia said.

Macopia said only food items are left to be released.

He said the DSWD is on its third and final round of distribution of family food packs.

“We have 11,000 family food packs left to be delivered to Bogo,” said the DSWD information officer./With USJ-R Intern Chens Judale Plenos