No documents lost after fire hits BOC building in Manila

FILE: The fire blaze started at the 3rd floor of the building and has reached the 5th alarm as determined by the Bureu of Fire Protection (BFP). (Photo: Bureau of Customs PH/Facebook)

Bureau of Customs (BOC) Spokesperson Erastus Austria assured the public that no important documents were burned after a fire razed their building at the Port of Manila on Friday night.

“There are a lot of documents in different offices that are located in the Port of Manila na (which were) affected, but I’m sure the biggest question on people’s minds is if apektado ba yung documents for the ongoing investigation (were also affected), that is not the case,” Austria said in an interview with CNN Philippines on Saturday, February 23.

The files that the Customs official was referring to were the cases involving the shipment of multi-billion pesos worth of shabu smuggled into the country inside magnetic lifters.

“The [shipment of] magnetic lifters happened in a different point of entry that is the Manila International Container Port (MICP) and the documents are there,” Austria said.

In case those documents were lost in the fire, he explained that the bureau still has electronic copies of all transactions of the BOC in their servers which is “safe and secured.”

Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) on Friday said the fire started on the third floor of the building at around 9 p.m. and reached the fifth alarm at 10 p.m.

It was reported that at least 30 firetrucks and several ambulances were deployed to battle the fire.

Firefighters declared fire out at 7:10 a.m. on Saturday. The cause of the fire has not yet been determined but the BOC said it will “immediately” conduct a formal investigation.

Despite the incident, the bureau stressed that there will be no interruption in their services because the offices affected by the fire will be temporarily placed in the BOC Gymnasium, specifically the Formal Entry Division.

It added that it will coordinate with other government offices near them such as the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) and the Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) for the possible use of their offices for BOC personnel.