{"id":27712,"date":"2014-10-02T19:14:26","date_gmt":"2014-10-02T11:14:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=27712"},"modified":"2014-10-02T21:17:27","modified_gmt":"2014-10-02T13:17:27","slug":"port-of-manila-extortion-outside-inside-on-the-roads-official-reveals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/10\/02\/port-of-manila-extortion-outside-inside-on-the-roads-official-reveals\/","title":{"rendered":"Port of Manila; \u2018Extortion outside, inside, on the roads,\u201d official reveals"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Wikipedia<\/a>
Wikipedia Photo of the Port of Manila<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA, Philippines – Cabinet Secretary Rene Almendras says he is now in a position to author a handbook on the extortion in the Port of Manila.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter this I can already write a handbook on extortion,\u201d Almendras, said at a press briefing in Malaca\u00f1ang yesterday.<\/p>\n

Almendras made these remarks as he announced that traffic port congestion has been eased, due to certain measures, such as the lifting of city of Manila\u2019struck ban.<\/p>\n

He admitted, however, that traffic in the vicinity of the Manila International Container Terminal and Manila South Harbor remains heavy, due to the long lines created by truck haulers waiting their turn for shipment processing.<\/p>\n

He likewise stressed that he sees no need to extend the two-week special privilege afforded to companies and truckers in order for them to clear their cargo out of the Port of Manila without being apprehended.<\/p>\n

Almendras, who heads the Cabinet Cluster on Port Congestion, lamented that there were other problems \u2013 such as corruption, extortion and bribery \u2013 besieging the Port of Manila that need immediate action.<\/p>\n

He cited the illegal activity of certain individuals collecting P500 to P1,500 each from truckers before allowing them to enter the port; something which the government task force on port congestion discovered while studying the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very probable that some employees in (the Bureau of) Customs are part of it. So we are going to do something about it. There is extortion outside, there is extortion inside, there is extortion on the roads,\u201d Almendras said.<\/p>\n

Almendras pointed out that the Bureau of Customs (BOC) is in the process of creating new guidelines on the processing of cargo in order to curtail corruption and foster transparency.<\/p>\n

From their end, the task force is targeting to improve the system of clearing shipments, Almendras said; as he noted that the current system is plagued with extortion.<\/p>\n

\u201cYesterday I found out that sometimes there are even\u2026 bidders who pay up to P2,500. You don\u2019t have to pay for that,\u201d he said, citing the procedure of some dishonest individuals who demand a bribe (minimum of P500) for the processing of shipment clearing.<\/p>\n

To resolve these problems, Almendras said that the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has committed their help, and that there would be a meeting with all the importers to inform them on how to fight abuse and corruption.<\/p>\n

Despite widespread corruption, Almendras remained optimistic as to the resolution of the problem: \u201cThings are now improving,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA, Philippines – Cabinet Secretary Rene Almendras says he is now in a position to author a handbook on the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":17131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,19,1145],"tags":[8060,7451,8061,7688],"class_list":["post-27712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-business","category-headline","tag-almendras","tag-port-congestion","tag-port-corruption","tag-port-of-manila","mauthors-angie-duarte","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}