Customs confiscates immobilized empty containers in Manila Port

MANILA, Philippines – The Bureau of Customs (BOC), in an attempt to decongest the country’s major harbor, confiscated more than 160 empty containers at the Manila International Container Terminal (MICT).

According to district collector Elmir Dela Cruz, the seized overstaying containers have been at the MICP for more than 150 days already.

“These overstaying empty containers shall not be accepted or loaded in any Customs ports without a lawful permission from our office,” Dela Cruz added.

Based on Section 2630(f) of the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines, port collectors are given the authority to confiscate containers from abroad that have overstayed. The confiscated containers will be subject to the seizure proceedings of the MICP law division.

The BOC has already instructed all shipping lines, private service providers, and freight forwarders to disallow and report the processing of the overstaying empty containers. The list of confiscated containers can be found here.

MICT is operated by the International Container Terminal Services Inc. It has an approximate annual capacity of around 1.9 million cargo containers. Around 65% of the foreigner container traffic arriving in Manila are processed at the MICT. – Rappler.com