RDC-7 urges DENR to act

On raw rattan export ban 

CEBU CITY, March 19 (PIA)—A circumvention of the law has deprived Cebu and the Visayas furniture manufacturers of rattan, which is among the region’s best selling product. 

Alarmed by the dwindling supply of rattan which has ceased to get to Cebu despite an export ban, furniture craftsmen are asking the Regional development Council (RDC) to intercede and draw the defining lines so that there is a unified interpretation of the laws and so that the circumvention can be stopped. 

Raw rattan poles are among the products listed in the export ban as per Customs Memorandum Circular No. 64-2014 dated May 15, 2014 signed by then Bureau of Customs (BOC) Commissioner John Sevilla. 

The same memorandum prohibits and regulates export of products such as gold from small-scale mining, some marine resources as humphead or Napoleon wrasse, live mud crab, live shrimps and prawns, marine wildlife species, milkfish, shells, elvers or eel fry and fingerlings, and saba banana planting materials. 

The to help implement the ban on the export of raw rattan, the Inter-Agency Committee (IAC) led by the Department of Trade and Industry as per Executive Order 1016. 

Along with the DTI, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Bureau of Customs are the line regulators, while PhilExport is tasked to police its members. 

But, RDC Social Development chair and private sector representative Melanie Ng claimed that the export ban is being circumvented in Mindanao. 

Mindanao has been the source of raw rattan for Central Visayas and its furniture and manufacturing industry, which has affected the reliability of local exporters who could not deliver anymore orders and local industry workers are finding lesser jobs in the absence of materials, Ng, who also sits as chairman of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry added. 

Ng, during the recent RDC reported that Mindanao exporters circumvent the ban by making minor modifications on the raw rattan poles to make them look like they have been processed, so these can be sent out as exports. 

The legal loophole, according to those in the industry is that front line regulators have been in subjectively interpreting processed raw rattan. 

Contributing to the confusion is that line regulators slightly modify raw rattan to make them look like these are processed and slip though as export. 

Over this, the furniture manufacturing industry has a proposed solution. 

They said that if all concerned agencies use the DENR Forest Management Bureau in ist 2014 interpretation. 

In 2014, the DENR ruled that “although rattan poles are cooked or sun-dried, these are not considered processed and finished unless these are transformed into manufactured products.” 

Along this, the RDC then resolves to request the DENR Secretary to urge its regional offices to strictly implement the export ban on raw rattan poles as provided by the IAC Resolution No. 1 and the Executive Order 1016 as well as the BOC CMO 64-2014. 

The RDC, during its full council meeting, also requests the DENR to ensure the harmonized implementation of the ban, using the DENR FMB 2014 implementation. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol) 

RDC-7’s NEDA Efren Carreon (center) sits with Chairman from the private sector Kenneth Cobonpue and Bohol Governor Edgar Chatto during the recent full council meeting when the council asked the DENT to stop the illegal circumvention of law to export raw rattan, thus depriving local furniture manufacturers raw materials. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)