Opinions
Hasta Pagkaon sa Gi-yolanda, Gustong Pabayran?
This is no longer news when donations from other countries for typhoon Yolanda victims are found rotting in government warehouses due to the government’s failure to observe and implement the necessary procedure how to establish a system to streamline their actions in order to enlist the full backing of related government agencies concerned to coordinate with the donations received from foreign countries.
Just imagine the Bureau of Customs withholding foreign donations in different containers stocked in their warehouses (and some of them were perishable goods that were believed already expired last February) and subjecting them to regular fees and demurrage charges, where earlier they were supposed to be exempted from any charges at the height of the typhoon considering that they were donations and not commercial in nature. Take the case of 6,400 tons of rice donated by
the Algerian government to Yolanda victims in which the ceremonial turnover was held last January 5 or two months after the typhoon struck in the Visayas.
And the Bureau of Customs has the gall to collect the corresponding fees when they know fully well that these are donations from foreign countries. BOC Port of Cebu District Collector Roberto Almadin was reported not answering repeated calls from Sun Star Cebu when calls were made to let him explain his side of the controversy. P-Noy has to better use his “big stick” to discipline and punish those in the government who are responsible for this.
