CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – The Mindanao International Container Terminal’s (MICT) collection office in the Misamis Oriental town of Tagoloan is asking the Bureau of Customs (BOC) that it be granted independent status.
In a petition addressed to BOC Commissioner Rey Leonardo B. Guerrero, MICT Port Collector John Simon argued that Northern Mindanao's economic development and trading activity has already shifted from Cagayan de Oro City to Tagoloan where the sprawling container terminal is located in the past decade.
The MICT collection office is currently under the BOC District 10 collection district.
Simon, who furnished the media with his petition on Monday, noted that the MICT collection office alone accounts for the 70 percent revenues of the BOC-10.
"This is the reason why in the ongoing restructuring plan of the Bureau of Customs, this has been highlighted and recommended because this will give the opportunity" for the MICT port collection office to "expeditiously act on very urgent matters," Simon said.
He added that the creation of a new collection district "will send a message to the business community that this new arrangement will eliminate so many layers, which he described as "very bureaucratic" and is not aligned with the "Ease of Doing Business" law recently signed by President Rodrigo Roa Duterte.
"We would like to unburden the business sector and the transacting public of a bureaucratic maze of the old Bureau of Customs which has resulted in many problems in the past," he said.
He added: "We would like to be represented in the Customs Collection Conference as the true voice of the men and women who are responsible for bringing in the majority of the much-needed revenue in our region."
If granted, Simon said a total of nine sub-ports will be under the MICT port collection office's jurisdiction. (PNA)
