Davao City lawmakers want to know why the local Bureau of Customs is not acting on the request of the Peace and Order Council and the City Tourism Council to reopen the P250-million x-ray machine facility at the Sasa Port as part of the city’s move to improve its security.
Davao City Councilor Danilo C. Dayanghirang said he is mulling the idea of calling Davao Customs Collector Erastus Sandino Austria to a city council session to shed light on the status of the costly x-ray machine in Sasa Port which has been rendered inutile for more than seven years now due to a legal dispute between the Bureau of Customs and the owner of the container yard where the x-ray machine is mothballed. The expensive machine has become a white elephant for years. (“While elephant” is idiomatic term for a property or possession that is useless or troublesome, especially one that is expensive to maintain or difficult to dispose of, according to Oxford Dictionaries).
The x-ray machine was installed in the Designated Examination Area (DEA) inside the Aquarius Container Yard of businessman Rodolfo Reta pursuant to a contract (memorandum of agreement) signed by him and the then BOC commissioner sometime in 2009.
In February 2010, however, the DEA was suddenly closed by the then acting Customs Anju Nereo Castigador, an unexpected move which was questioned by Reta in court. He filed administrative and criminal cases with the Ombudsman, against the BOC official, who was eventually dismissed from the service with another local Customs employee. Two other Customs examiners charged by Reta was slapped by the Ombudsman with suspension orders.
Among the cases lodged in court was the insistence of the BOC that the MOA with Reta had been validly terminated. However, Reta maintained that the MOA has been rescinded and went to court. He was granted favorable rulings in the Regional Trial Court and the Court of Appeals. The legal question is now pending with the Supreme Court.
Reta also succeeded in thwarting two attempts of the BOC to take the x-ray machine out of the DEA inside the container yard owned by him. In both instances, the court sided with Reta, according to Dean Manuel Quibod of the Ateneo de Davao University college of law, who is one of the lawyers of the embattled businessman.
In a press conference, Customs Collector Austria was quoted to have said that the x-ray machine cannot be reopened in its current location —inside the container yard of Reta because it is the view of a former solicitor general that the BOC’s contract with the businessman has been rescinded.
This view of Austria was contradicted by Dean Quibod, Reta’s lawyer, who argued that the Solgen’s opinion is just an opinion and it has no controlling effect because the Supreme Court has not yet ruled on the issue.
Quibod also expressed surprise why Austria is invoking the opinion of former Solgen Francis Jardeleza when past Customs’ commissioners and Davao Customs collectors have not invoked it, knowing that it has no controlling effect.
In a separate statement, Mayor Sara D. Carpio, who heads both the CPOC and City Tourism Council, expressed exasperation over the inaction of Austria on the city government’s urgent request to have the x-ray machine reopened.
“Our point with CPOC is to use the x-ray machine because of the urgency of the security threat,” Mayor Sara told a lady reporter in a text message. “Ambot lang pud nganong dili nila gusto gamiton ang x-ray. Nothing surprises me anymore sa Customs. Naa silay kaugalingon na world. (I don’t know why they don’t like to use the x-ray. Nothing surprises me anymore. They seem to have their own world.)”
Dayanghirang said he is looking into the x-ray machine controversy not only in his capacity as top official of the Davao City Council where he is chairman of several influential committees on finance, ways and means and appropriations, but also as national chairman of the Philippine Councilors League with 16,000 members nationwide.
He said he is interested in finding out why indeed is Collector Austria delaying action on the urgent request of the city government, through the City Peace and Order Council and the City Tourism Council, both headed by Mayor Sara D. Carpio, to reopen the x-ray machine so it can be used against illegal activities that may adversely affect the people of Davao City, like entry of firearms and explosives used in terrorist activities, illegal drugs and smuggled items.
“As city official and citizen of Davao, to me the most important function of the x-ray machine, if put into use again, is to help strengthen the security of the city in these troubled times,” Dayanghirang said.
“All of us in the city government and the private sector agree with the urgency that Mayor Inday puts on the matter of security, given our city’s horrible experience with terrorism through the years,” the lawmaker said, adding that the use of the powerful x-ray machine will also go a long way in the flagship campaigns of President Duterte against illegal drugs and graft and corruption. ANTONIO M. AJERO
