In a statement issued last Saturday, the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) disclosed the proposal was made during the meeting of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. with the Private Sector Advisory Council (PSAC) last Friday.
The tie-up between the two agencies are expected to help enforcers in going after smugglers by allowing them to keep track of documentary requirements of imported goods.
During his dialogue with PSAC, Marcos expressed concern about ongoing smuggling in the country, which he attributed to defects in the country’s bureaucracy.
“To be brutally frank about it, we have a system but they are not working. The smuggling here in this country is absolutely rampant. So it does not matter to me how many systems we have in place, they do not work,” Marcos said.
Last Friday, personnel of the DA and the Manila International Container Port (MICP) seized P19-million worth of alleged smuggled sugar.
Prior to the incident, the DA also announced the confiscation of P78.9 million worth of illegally imported agricultural products last Tuesday and P30 million worth of “smuggled” yellow onions last month.
Marcos ordered for “major reforms” to the bureaucracy to address the said incidents and also to lower logistics costs in the country.
“So we really have to find something else. We cannot continue to depend on these systems, which have already proven themselves to be quite ineffective,” the president said.
Marcos said this can be done through government innovations and delineation of functions or creation of new agencies, if necessary.