Two international donors turned over the relief goods intended to victims of supertyphoon Yolanda to the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) last week.
Johan De Pelsmacker of Belgium and Afya Foundation, a US organization, signed the deeds of donation recognizing the DSWD as the consignee of the relief goods that remained stuck at the Cebu International Port since January this year.
Pelsmacker donated 12 container vans filled with relief goods while Afya Foundation donated 20 container vans worth of relief goods
Josephine Belotindo, head of the DSWD-7’s Standards Unit said the original consignees of the donations backed out.
“There are some donors who don’t have an idea that there are customs law and rules followed at One-Stop-Shop (OSS) for the release of the container vans while there are consignees that can’t pay the extra charges because it’s increasing everyday,” she said.
Exempted
The original consignee for the 12 container vans from Belgium was the Rotary International District 3860.
The container vans contained used clothing, food and bottles of water arrived in January 2014.
The original consignee for the 20 container vans from the US was former Gabriela party-list Rep. Liza Maza.
The container vans contained bottles of water, food, infant formula and baby wipes and they arrived from March to April this year.
Based on guidelines set by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) for international donations, if consignee is DSWD or any registered organization under DSWD, they are exempted from duties and taxes.
Timeline
The storage, demurrage, arrastre, wharfage, trucking / transportation, warehousing, stripping and stuffing are not covered by the privileges. The consignee will pay for the extra charges.
As of November 17, other fees and logistic costs for the 20 container vans from the US already reached P8 million.
“We don’t have a timeline for the release of the container vans. We are still waiting for some documents that are needed for the One-Stop-Shop (OSS),” Belotindo told Cebu Daily News.
The 12 container vans from Belgium lack a bill of lading while the 20 container vans from the US don’t have an authenticated deed of donation.
“The processing of these documents are done from the country of origin because there are changes in the name of consignees. We are still waiting for the central office to forward the documents to us,” she said.
Belotindo told Cebu Daily News that if the donations were released, they will still have to conduct an inventory of the items.
She said the primary beneficiaries will be Yolanda victims in northern Cebu.