The new directors of the Chamber of Customs Brokers, Inc. (CCBI) who will serve the organization from 2017-2019 have been elected.
Winners of the March 17 national election are Jose Jefferson Bajao, Samuel Bautista (a columnist at PortCalls), Antonio Bilaqzon, Adones Carmona, Norberto Castillo, Dennis Del Pilar, Samson Gabisan, Lani Benitez-Gallino, Michael Mertalla, Ferdinand Nague, Elen Pasion, Joseph Romano, Maria Theresa Santos, Florecita Tagle, and Michael Tede.
CCBI’s new set of officers will be elected from among these new directors.
All 15 new CCBI Board members are part of only one team—Team NAGUE (New Generation of Leaders, Ambassadors for Change, Good Governance, United, Empowered)—a mix of new and former board members of the chamber; the team’s name is also the surname of one of the team’s directors, Ferdinand Nague. Nague, also a lawyer and former chairman of the Professional Regulatory Board for Customs Brokers under the Professional Regulation Commission, is widely believed to be elected next president of the chamber.
Meanwhile, Team Coalition, the other team that vied for seats on the CCBI Board, will file a petition with the chamber’s election committee to declare a failure of election. According to Team Coalition member Rey Soliman, only 45%, or 732 of the 1,736 registered voters, voted during the election. He claimed that at least 50% of registered voters should have cast their votes for the election to be legitimate.
Team NAGUE’s Romano, in a text message to PortCalls, said Team Coalition’s claim was “baseless and unfounded.”
“The CCBI by-laws [are] unequivocal. [They state] that the winners shall be determined by plurality of votes of the delegates present,” Romano explained. He added that if the opposing team’s argument was true, “then there was no board of directors or officers of CCBI since its creation because we did not reach that majority.” The 2015 election of CCBI gathered only 400 voters.
CCBI, the accredited professional organization of customs brokers in the Philippines, has around 2,000 practicing members and chapters in Manila, Batangas, Cebu, Subic, Davao, Cagayan de Oro, General Santos, and Zamboanga. – Roumina Pablo
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