P-Noy urged: Spare ‘ukay-ukay’; BOC to burn P22 million goods

By Erwin Beleo and Eileen P. Refuerzo

BAGUIO CITY -- The city government here urged President Aquino to allow the “ukay-ukay” activity (sale of used clothes, clothes or items) to continue in this city following crackdown conducted by the Bureau of Customs recently.

Councilor Leandro Yangot, in a resolution, said the city’s “ukay-ukay” or “wag-wag” business be given consideration because like any business activities operating here, the “ukay-ukay” traders also get business permits, and pay local taxes and fees.

More than 2,800 bales of smuggled goods worth P22 million intended for sale in used-clothes shops or “ukay-ukay” arrived in San Fernando City Monday from Baguio with Bureau of Customs officials saying these would be burned since these could contain infectious diseases.

The confiscated goods, mostly second hand clothes, comforters and other garments, were brought to the BOC office at Poro Point after these were seized in a series of raids conducted first week of September by BOC agents.

A personnel at the La Union District Collector’s office said the seized bales, which packed the BOC offices to the ceiling, will most likely be “burned for fear of diseases.”

This developed even as Baguio City Rep. Nicasio Aliping Jr. questioned why the BOC conducted the raids on the alleged ukay-ukay warehouses when these goods had already passed BOC scrutiny.

“Those items already went through the BOC, so why still the crackdown?” he asked.

Baguio City Mayor Mauricio Domogan, likewise, took a swipe at the BOC for zeroing in on the businessmen engaged in “ukay-ukay” instead of clamping down on the smugglers at the country’s ports-of-entry.

“It is unfair to our businessmen because they are not the importers but only the retailers. Why can’t (the BOC) run after the smugglers?” Domogan said.

He said that Baguio, considered the country’s “ukayukay capital,” could reel from the effects of the crackdown.

BOC agents went on a lightning raid through nine warehouses in Baguio and Trinidad Benguet on Sept 2 and confiscated at least 2,800 bales of used clothes, mostly branded apparel from the United States and Canada.

The agency said the seized goods, meant for sale at the city’s hundreds of ukay-ukay stalls, were declared as scrap fabric intended for manufacture and subsequent export as rags.

The massive crackdown is expected to affect the city’s ukay-ukay industry as there are 2,500 registered stalls while there are 500 ambulant vendors who ply used clothing and other goods at the Baguio night market.

“We need to ensure that legitimate stakeholders in the local garments industry should be protected and illegal importations of clothing,” said Bonifacio de Castro, BOC District Collector.

Garcia noted that the proliferation of entrepreneurs selling used clothes has adversely affected the local garments and clothing industry, eating into the profitability and competitiveness of many retailers and manufacturers.

Even with this, Domogan appealed to the BOC for consideration of the plight of the  “ukay-ukay” traders.

“I hope the BOC will give consideration to these ukay-ukay vendors as they were not the importers of these items but were merely buyers and it was not their obligation to pay the customs duties and taxes for these goods,” the mayor  said.

BOC operatives raided a total of 11 wagwag warehouses located in Hilltop, Bonifacio St. and Magsaysay Avenue and confiscated over 3,000 bales of smuggled used clothing, comforters and other garments.

The warehouse owners were given three days to show proof of legality of the shipment of said items.

The mayor said the BOC should go after the importers of the goods even as he urged the warehouse owners to cooperate with the BOC in the identification of these contacts by providing details and any helpful information even if most of their transactions are done only through the electronic means.

He expressed hope that BOC will give respite to the local traders through a compromise settlement to address their plight and to prevent any adverse effect in the business which has thrived in the city for many years now.

These warehouses are suppliers of most wagwag retail businesses in the city including the flourishing night market.

The mayor also said the city government should not be blamed or accused of tolerating this illegal act.

“The issue here is not the sale of these second hand goods which we do not prohibit in the city.  The issue is that these items got through and got in the country without the payment of customs duties and taxes.  So the BOC should also check how this happened and investigate its own backyard,” the mayor said.

BOC information and assistance division acting chief CharoLagamon, in a press statement, said the seized articles are “mostly branded apparel from the United States and Canada… believed to have entered the country through locators at the Subic and Clark Freeport zones as well as the Cavite Export Processing Zone in Rosario, Cavite as scrap fabric intended for manufacture and subsequent export as rags.”

“An investigation by the Bureau’s Intelligence Group, however, found that certain locators inside economic zones use their privilege to import raw materials tax-free to smuggle used clothing in the guise of scrap fabric. These locators then sell the used clothing dealers who then supply local ‘ukay-ukay’ business owners;

“Export Manufacturing Enterprises registered with the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) and located at PEZA Zones are allowed tax-free and duty-free importation of raw materials, capital equipment, machineries and spare parts. They are also exempted from paying wharfage dues and export tax, impost or fees;

“However, Republic Act Number 4653 (An Act to Safeguard the Health of the People and Maintain the Dignity of the Nation by Declaring it a National Policy to Prohibit the Commercial Importation of Textile Articles Commonly Known as Used Clothing and Rags), which has been in effect since 1966, bans the commercial importation of used clothing.”

She earlier said the seized used clothing will be “subjected to seizure and later, forfeiture proceedings in favor of the government. Follow-up operations will commence to identify and file cases against the erring importers and traders.”