Three months after their arrival, new x-ray equipment donated by the People’s Republic of China were officially turned over to the Bureau of Customs (BOC) during formal rites on Tuesday.
In a statement on Wednesday, the BOC said the equipment would help the agency intensify efforts to strengthen border control and enhance trade facilitation. The BOC statement said the equipment consists of four units of Mobile Container/Vehicle Inspection System (MCVIS) and two units of Computerized Tomography (CT) Scan Inspection System. These were donated through “the leading x-ray producer in China,” Nuctech Co. Ltd., represented by Zhou Chunming, the firm’s project manager.
The official turnover of the machines this week was done more than three months after its arrival last October 8, 2019.
Of the four MCVIS, two will be deployed to the Manila International Container Port (MICP), one to the Port of Manila and the remaining one to the Port of Subic. The CT Scan Inspection Systems will be operated in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Customs offices.
According to the BOC’s X-ray Inspection Project (XIP), each MCVIS unit can scan 60 containers at most per hour, improving trade facilitation.
The BOC said the x-ray machine is attached to a Swedish-manufactured truck. The equipment is equipped with material and color discrimination capability allowing image analysts to discriminate organic and inorganic materials thus enhancing the capability in detecting illegal drugs, the BOC said. Further, it can operate with the aid of city power or, in the absence of the latter, using its own generator, it added.
The CT Scan Inspection System can generate 360-degree image, image slice and detect explosives thus enhancing security in our major airport, in addition to its material discrimination feature, according to the BOC.
“These scanning machines will enable rapid and effective screening of containerized shipments and cargos with less human intervention aligned with fulfilling BOC’s mandate to keep our borders secure and to enhance trade facilitation,” it added.
According to Nuctech’s web site, the x-ray inspection system can discriminate organic material from inorganic material, as well as radioactivity.
Its MT series, the company said, “can be driven independently during site transfer transportation and can be deployed for use within 15 minutes.”