TORREVILLAS
last year. While total collections for October fell 8.7% short of the P30.5-billion target for the month, revenues grew for the fourth month in a row.
The axe began to fall on smugglers. When he was in Cebu City, as part of his inspection trip at the typhoon devastated area of Tacloban City, Biazon monitored the filing of appropriate charges at the Department of Justice against three traders who attempted to illegally bring into the country P16.5 million worth of agricultural products.
Also seized were P16.3 million worth of smuggled toxic chemicals, and one 40-footer container van of illegally imported fake Marlboro cigarettes worth P18 million, which arrived at the Manila International Container Port (MICP) from China in October.
Also, alert customs officials arrested and BOC subsequently filed charges against a South African drug mule caught carrying 8.5 kilos of cocaine worth P40 million.
The arrest of the South African drug mule, said Biazon, “should send a strong warning to international drug rings that the Philippines is no place for their illegal and hazardous drugs. We shall prosecute and seek for the maximum penalties allowed by law to all those caught attempting to smuggle drugs into the country, if only to spare the lives of young Filipinos.”
Another move made was the meeting between customs offi and stakeholders to discuss the planned establishment of a Customs Trade Facilitation Office (CTFO). “We would like to continue to open-engagement working relationship between customs officials and stakeholders,” Biazon said. “With the enhanced partnership between the BOC and stakeholders, we should not only be able to improve our services, but more importantly, we should be able to apply only the best practices in the industry.”
The meeting, which was attended by the officers of the Port Users Confederation (PUC), Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), American Chamber of Commerce (ACC), Korean Chamber of Commerce (KC) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), was the first of three meetings to discuss the possible provi- sions of a Custom Memorandum Order creating the Trade Facilitation Office. This office, designed to assist the country’s importers and exporters with their customs needs, will be manned by customs officials and stakeholders.
Customs Deputy Commissioner for Assessment Operations and Coordinating Group (AOCG) Agaton Uvero said that considering the nature of the TFO, a satellite trade facilitation office should be opened in Makati, where many exporters and importers are based.
Another reform-minded move is catching up with most of the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in modernizing the country’s antiquated Customs and Tariff Code.
The ASEAN is shooting for an integrated economy by 2015, which calls for unified customs schemes and practices by its member nations. Biazon said, “The Philippines must adjust to the changing times by adopting the ASEAN vision.”
He continued, “Today, customs administration is no longer just a domestic issue, but an international economic concern where liberalized movement of goods among nations is among its priorities. We must get on board the ongoing changes in the global market and customs trends.”
Happily, the House committee on ways and means headed by Marikina City Rep. Miro Quimbo is prioritizing the passage of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA) to amend the 30-year-old customs code. Commissioner Biazon’s father, Muntinlupa Rep. Rodolfo Biazon, filed the bill last July.
If passed into law, the CMTA would put the Philippines in line with international standards in customs operations, making import trade transactions faster, effi cient, transparent and predictable, and minimizing corruption and fraud and losses in government revenues, Commissioner Biazon said.