LAWYER and reform-minded former Bureau of Customs Director Ramon Cuyco who retired in 2014 remembered having been invited to a focus group discussion by an equally reformist retired general who was then the BOC deputy commissioner supervising the accreditation outfit.
They were to discuss the pitfalls of the agency’s accreditation process, and Cuyco ardently joined in the discussion and, in the end, he recommended an alternative solution: a two-phase measure called Project EnLIST.
The insiders, including staffers of the accreditation office, agreed on Phase 1 of Cuyco’s proposal, which will make the process fast and less cumbersome. Unfortunately, they did not like Phase 2, where abuses in Phase 1 can be checked and exposed, the whole shebang being no longer within the exclusive control of the unit, but by a process that will now dilute the insider’s absolute authority and wide latitude of discretion.
“The resistance from within was so clear to me—I sensed they were taking the reformist general for a ride, Cuyco said as he remembered confronting a co-participant: “Mister, it seems like you don’t want the system changed!”
“He was nonplussed. The objection was loud and clear. So, I got out of the room of that Pasay-based hotel where the zarzuela was held. I know I would have gotten the nod of the General had they decided to refer my proposal to him; but they did not. Unfortunately, Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim resigned from BOC out of exasperation,” Cuyco said.
The BOC accreditation process, Cuyco explained, “is not a hopeless case. We only have to recognize that it is not necessarily a case of bad people—rather a case of bad systems. And it gets compounded when this bad system is handled by bad people.”
So, what’s this two-Phase EnLIST System all about? How will it function?
EnLIST is an acronym for Enrollment of Legitimate Importers for Security in Trade. But more than just an acronym, the two-phase system will address the evils that have been besetting the agency year after year, administration after administration: consignees-for-hire, single-proprietorships bringing in billion pesos-worth of goods, fly-by-night importers, or missing containers in hundreds or even thousands, in addition to the more paramount issues of national security, among them the entry of goods like drugs, knockoff products, firearms and explosives, and terrorist’s gadgets.”
So, how does it operate?
Cuyco said:
“Phase 1—eliminates the yearly registration. There shall be a one-time registration only. This will facilitate trade, and it will make the legitimate importer’s administrative burdens much lighter.
“To ensure that the legitimacy of importers, and security interests are not imperiled, Phase 1 shall be attached to a regularly updated firms and importers risk management system [FIRMS], that shall be the starting mechanism for a merit and demerit system [MADS] whose scorecard shall be inputted into the Phase 2 of Project EnLIST.
“This MADS, together with other derogatory information [DERO] that are crowd sourced and carefully validated, shall become the bases for reclassifying FIRMS, if not totally blacklisting or revoking the company’s accreditation.
“In other words, Phase 2 consists of outsourced and validated inputs from internal subsystems of the Bureau, as well as from externally sourced out DEROs like those emanating from the courts, the Department of Justice, the National Bureau of Investigation, the BIR, the DOF, the local government units, including the Office of the President.
“The validated DERO from the various externalities of the Bureau of Customs, together with the inputs from the various ports and subports, their enforcement units—CIIS, ESS and the OCOM, will periodically and automatically revise—upgrade or downgrade of the firms’ and importers’ risk categories; or, whenever warranted, blacklist or totally delete the importer’s name from the registry of accredited importers, of course, following a summary proceeding that observes due process.”
According to Cuyco, “this is what the insiders did not like in my proposal—the Phase 2, where they lose their centralized authority and unbridled discretion.
“They preferred the present practice—only the Phase 1, the Enrollment Phase, where post-enrollment incidents will not be factored until a controversy erupts and ends up in a congressional probe. And, there can only be one reason for this: your guess is as good as mine, yet we both stand a good chance of being correct—100 to nil, if you may.”
“Again,” Cuyco said, “it is not necessarily a case of bad people; rather a case of bad system—and it stinks, and it sucks!”
“Kalakaran na? OMG! If only they would, they could. If they buy in, Project EnLIST will clean the list—but this is precisely what they dreaded the most,” he said.
To reach the writer, e-mail cecilio.arillo@gmail.com.