DAVAO CITY—The Port of Davao posted another national highest single-day collection for the month last week, its second this year and beating the first record by nearly P60 billion.
This amount is also the year’s record nationwide.
The Bureau of Customs (BOC) said it collected P876,050,359.99 on December 17, the highest by any of the BOC ports in the country this month.
This amount was higher to its previous best single-day collection record set on September 10 this year, when it collected P817,736,040.92. It was the highest collection that month and was already equivalent to one-half of the target for the month.
The BOC Port of Davao described its record as astonishing and said this would be “an immense help to the government’s health, education and infrastructure programs among others, especially those that are deemed essential during this challenging time.”
Meanwhile, Customs agents and environment personnel intercepted in the Davao City port on December 10 this year a shipment of agarwood, classified as the most expensive tree. The shipment was valued at P1.72 million.
This type of wood is included in the National List of Threatened Philippine Plants as contained in the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Administrative Order 2007-01.
The BOC coordinated its operation with the Davao International Airport, its Environmental Protection and Compliance Division, with the BOC-Ninoy Aquino International Airport, the Philippine National Police Aviation Security Group and the DENR Region XI.
It said its records show that the package was initially mis-declared as “wood frames for souvenirs.” However, after x-ray scanning and physical examination, the package was instead found to contain 671 pieces of Agarwood chips sought to be illegally exported from the country without the necessary permits from the DENR.
The same operation was “interestingly similar” to the recent interception by the BOC-NAIA office of 28 kilos outbound package of Agarwood worth P2.4 million last December 2, the BOC said.
The seized package would be turned over to the DENR.