Help with Food
Garry Corunia reports from Star of Hope Philippines, Text and Photo, Garry
Greetings from Manila! Hope you are all doing well.
On the third week of January 2014, me and my brother Jay, went to Cebu City to take care of the shipment arriving sent by Human Bridge from Scandinavia through Star of Hope.
Some months before, we already visited Ormoc City together with Hakon Skaug, from Star of Hope Norway, who happened to be in the country during the time that typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan struck, but he was actually here for some other meetings. We set out to do an ocular inspection and assess the situation over there with regards to the needs of the people. Since most of the relief aid components were medical related, we deemed it appropriate to make contact with people who works in the field of medicine.
We got in touch with a certain contact via a friend until we came across Dra. Judith Garcia-Larrazabal, who hails from Ormoc city herself. So upon our arrival there, they showed us around to the different places that were affected by typhoon Yolanda, particularly to the district hospital of Ormoc, and some other equally affected hospitals and also to villages that were greatly devastated as well.
Fast forward, a half and a month later, the arrival of the shipment from Scandinavia finally came near. The original notice we received from the shipper was January 20, 2014. So now, we needed to prepare the paper work for the urgent release of the shipment. Since we had previous dealings with the Bureau of Customs, and the seemingly “magical” ways they handle freight shipments are quite well known to all, we immediately set out to book a flight to Cebu city in anticipation of the incoming schedule of arrival of the relief aid shipment.
We got in contact with a certain person from inside the Customs Bureau itself that could really help facilitate the release of the shipment, bound for Ormoc, upon arrival there in Cebu City port. Thank goodness that they assisted us because all of the incoming shipment was certainly for humanitarian cause and donated by kind-hearted people from countries who were touched by what they saw in the aftermath of the super-typhoon Yolanda/Haiyan.
Garry and Jay, let's clear those containers
Upon our arrival in Cebu City, we wasted no time and went ahead to the Bureau of Customs at the port area. We contacted a shipment broker who actually guided us in the step-by-step processing of our documents. We were instructed to go to the “One-stop-shop” first near the airport before anything else. This is a designated place where the various inter-government agencies such as DSWD (Department of Social Welfare & Development), DOH (Department of Health), and the DAF (Department of Finance) are put into a central location where an organization, like Star of Hope, could apply for tariff exemption of relief goods shipment intended for the typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda victims.
Usually, when applying for such privilege of exemption from import duties here in our country, it is like passing through the eye of a needle because government officials have very keen eyes that strictly scrutinize every detail of the packing list in the Bill of Lading, perhaps trying to find loopholes in our documents that would somehow allow them to squeeze something out with every opportunity that would arise. True enough, we had to fly back home to Manila because the clearance for the release of the relief/medical aid equipment would have to be continued on the following week. Because the two 40 foot containers actually arrived quite late in the week (Friday) already for it to have to be processed & released on the same day anyway. And since the processing of the documents took significant time to accomplish, requiring lots of leg-work, going from one place to another all over Cebu city for the corresponding government agency signatures, approvals, multiple endorsements in three different areas, etc. Hence, upon arriving back at BOC (Bureau of Customs) for the supposedly last step in the Appraiser stage, it did not make the cutoff time at the Land bank for the necessary fees/payments to have it released that Friday. So, weekend came and the first thing in the morning of the succeeding Monday, it was only me this time who was able to go back to Cebu to continue the processing of the paper works at Customs.
With constant prayers and divine intervention, and by the wonderful grace of God, the Bureau of Customs granted us the clearance to proceed forward! Finally, the relief aid shipments were released on Tuesday (January 28th) and the container vans are out of the pier port already! Now, the next challenge was, shipping to Ormoc city!
