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THE
Bureau of Customs may impose a surveyor report for bulk
shipments 24 hours before a ship docks in its port of
call.
”We have
to make these measures airtight to collect what is due
to the government,” said Customs Commissioner Napoleon
Morales.
Morales
said the surveyor system allows only accredited
surveyors to survey bulk shipments, which is a major
part of the risk-management efforts by Customs.
An
electronic copy of the surveyor report would be required
from the port of loading 24 hours before the arrival of
the ship to the port of entry.
Morales
said they have tried this with the submission of advance
inward foreign manifest among international shipping
lines to facilitate advanced screening and profiling of
shipments before they reach the country’s ports.
“This
way, we will be able to determine what are the items
involved, the volume and the value,” he said.
Morales
said the move to require importers to hire only
accredited surveyors was prompted by the trend of hiring
private surveyors to monitor the volume and quality of
shipments classified under bulk.
Items
such as wheat, oil, salt, chemicals, liquids, corn and
rice fall under this class.
“This
was a measure that we have proposed to the President
even before. All we are doing now is [to make final] the
terms of reference for this measure,” Morales said.
The
President has ordered a major reorganization of key
offices of the bureau under Executive Order (EO) 724 in
the hope of gaining a more responsive and intensified
antismuggling effort on the part of the government.
The
order moved the prosecution functions of four bureau
offices to the prosecution and litigation division of
the legal service.
These
are the divisions of investigation and prosecution and
the internal inquiry and prosecution of the Customs
Intelligence and Investigation Service, certain units
the Office of the Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence,
headed by Celso Templo and the Enforcement Group and the
Office of the Director of Enforcement and Security
Services headed by Nicasio Radovan Jr.
In
issuing EO 724, the President pointed out that the
present setup in the bureau where the prosecution
function is being exercised by various offices
diminishes the effectivity of the antismuggling drive of
the government.
Malacañang alloted P5 million for the project.
“This is
the same case with other government agencies, and we are
just harmonizing our system with other government
offices. This, hopefully, will avoid delays in charging
violators,” Morales said. |
