Press Release
September 14, 2009

ROXAS: CUSTOMS REGULATIONS 'HELPING' SMUGGLERS
BoC OFFICIALS SHOULD REVISE RULES, 'DO MORE' TO HELP LOCAL FARMERS

Liberal President Senator Mar Roxas today said rules and regulations of the Bureau of Customs against the smuggling of agricultural and other goods are too lenient that they actually encourage this illegal activity that kills the livelihoods of local farmers.

"Dahil sa kanilang mga baluktot na patakaran, nagiging bahagi na rin ang BoC sa laganap na smuggling dito sa ating bansa. Lumalabas na katulong sila ng smugglers (Because of their insufficient regulations, BoC has become part of the increased smuggling in the country. As if they were helping the smugglers)," he said.

Roxas, chairman of the Senate Trade and Commerce Committee, said Customs officials led by Commissioner Napoleon Morales should "do more to protect the interest of the public and the revenues of the government."

"Your rules are helping smuggling in the country. So change your rules. There is nothing in this world that stops you from doing that," he told Morales during the joint committee hearing into the worsening state of onion smuggling held by the Senate committees on Agriculture and Food; Trade and Commerce; and Ways and Means.

The Visayan senator said Morales could revise his bureau's existing rules to stop or prevent smuggling, such as:

  • Changing from the current 12 hours to 24 hours the deadline for shipping companies to submit the Inward Foreign Manifesto of their cargo ships entering the country's ports.

  • Compelling the ships' captains to send in advance all documents pertinent to their importation activities through electronic methods;

  • Furnishing onion industry players a copy of the IFM to allow them to examine which of the incoming shipments could be imported onions.

"Nasa kamay mo kung paanong mas magigiling madali ang pagpigil dito sa mga smugglers na ito. Dalawang bagay lang ito: gusto mong matigil na ang smuggling o gusto mong magtuloy-tuloy ito kaya business as usual pa rin kayo kahit lumalala na ang insidente ng smuggling ng mga sibuyas (The solution is in your hands. There are only two possibilities: you seriously want to stop smuggling, or you have this business-as-usual attitude because you want it to continue)," he stressed.

Morales had said that under the present set-up, shipping companies only submit their IFMs 12 hours before the estimated time of arrival of the shipments; the ships' captains submit all necessary documentations on their shipment only upon arrival; and IFMs are kept confident among government agencies.

Such rules on procedure, Roxas said, allows smugglers to get away with their illegal activities because the BoC is given little time to thoroughly review the importation documents and inspect the imported goods. In addition, the local industry is left in the blind instead of being able to participate in anti-smuggling efforts.

The senator proposed during the hearing that the BoC allow onion industry representatives to do a random inspection of at least 20 container vans, or 10% of the 200 container vans that arrive daily in the Port of Manila or at the Manila International Container Port (MICP), to double check if they contain smuggled onions.

The random inspection, he said, would ensure that BoC personnel do not collude with importers and allow vans containing smuggled products to leave the port and proceed to their respective warehouses. This would be on top of the regular BoC routine of X-Ray inspections, Risk Management inspections, and Manual Inspections.

"Kawawa naman ang daan-daang libong onion farmers natin. Tungkulin ng gobyerno na protektahan ang kanilang interes kaya kailangan ang agaran at desididong aksyon mula sa Bureau of Customs (It's government's duty to protect the interests of our hundreds of thousands of onion farmers. Customs should act now)," Roxas said, noting the plight of the estimated 500,000 industry stakeholders, of which 125,000 are onion farmers, farm workers and their families.

The Katipunan ng mga Samahang Magsisibuyas sa Nueva Ecija (KASAMNE) had claimed that as much as 2.3 million bags of onions from China and India have been smuggled into the country since the start of this year alone.

The local onion growing industry thrives in nine provinces, mainly in Nueva Ecija, Pangasinan, Tarlac and Bulacan. It is recognized as an economic growth potential for the country with an annual gross production of about 100,000 metric tons valued at P5 billion.

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