Confiscated used clothing goes to clothing victims

FIVE containers of confiscated used clothing from Thailand worth P7.5 million were turned over by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Central Visayas (DSWD-7) for distribution to disaster victims.

Lawyer Elvira Cruz, District Collector for BOC Port of Cebu, said the confiscated items violated the Republic Act No. 4563 or An Act to safeguard the health of the people and maintain the dignity of the nation by declaring it a national policy to prohibit the commercial importation of textile articles commonly known as used clothing and rags.

The five container vans contained shirts, pants, dresses, and children’s wear.

Two of the container vans arrived in February 2014, while the other three arrived in June and October 2017 from different importers including F.A. Trading, Cross Pointe, Rowena Grace Ilustrio, Sandramiles Trading, and Naba International Co. Ltd.

BOC said the used clothing may have been intended for ukay-ukay stores in Cebu.

Cruz said that a new protocol in dealing with imported used clothing from President Rodrigo Duterte is to donate these items to the victims of disaster.

“Before, it’s just condemnation of these used clothing. From now on, the procedure is to turn them over to the DSWD,” said Cruz.

The Presidential Directive dated September 21, 2018, gives authority to the DSWD to distribute the confiscated items to the victims of Typhoon Ompong affecting the Cordillera Autonomous Region and most of Benguet.

Grace Subong, Assistant Regional Director for Administration of DSWD-7, said that although the donated items are intended for the typhoon victims in Luzon, they will propose to the DSWD Central Office if they can allocate some of the clothing to the victims of the Naga landslide and the victims of the recent fires in Cebu.

“As of now, we will follow the directive,” said Subong.

Cruz assured that the clothes are clean and safe to use.

“As you can see, not all of these are used. Some are almost new — overruns,” said Cruz.

Cruz said that the used clothing are still usable unlike the relief goods intended for Yolanda victims that were burned by BOC on October 4 for being expired items.