Manila: In trying to solve Manila port’s congestion issues the government has uncovered vast and varied levels of corruption and has vowed a crackdown
Cabinet Secretary Rene Almendras, who heads the Cabinet Cluster on Port Congestion, told a press briefing earlier this week: “After this I can already write a handbook on extortion.”
The government task force on port congestion discovered some individuals were collecting P500 to P1,500 each from truckers before they were allowed to enter the port.
“It’s very probable that some employees in (the Bureau of) Customs are part of it. So we are going to do something about it,” Almendras said. “There is extortion outside, there is extortion inside, there is extortion on the roads.”
The Bureau of Customs (BOC) would issue new guidelines on the processing of cargo to promote transparency. [02/10/14]
