Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon disclosed that talks are on-going with the World Customs Organization (WCO) to probe the bureau’s current system to determine how the P6.4-billion shabu shipment passed through the Customs system with relative ease.

Faeldon, during an interview following the Senate hearing on Monday, said that he already requested the WCO to conduct an investigation on the risk management system or the selectivity system that the Bureau of Customs (BOC) uses on all containers that arrive in the country.

The embattled commissioner said the separate investigating committee will be a group of international experts who fully understand the system “more than anybody else in the country.”

“It’s not a technology that we all understand. The selectivity system is not a technology that everybody is using everyday,” Faeldon said.

“I want a separate group from the World Customs Organization to conduct an investigation on this management system that we put in place to identify the failures of the BOC. They will definitely find out if there are human interventions, or failures in doing their job,” Faeldon added.

Deputy Commissioner Gerardo Gambala explained that the BOC has four lanes. For a cargo to pass a certain lane, its risks should be determined through the parameters or “checkpoints.”

Gerardo said cargoes which are not randomly selected to pass through the yellow and red lanes, where further inspection is conducted, go to the green lane and will continue their processing until they are released. This is what happened to the P6.4 billion shabu shipment, he said.

He said about 15-20 percent of the cargoes are being randomly selected to pass through the green lane and there’s no chance that a cargo of the same company will be selected to pass through the same lane in the succeeding days, he said.

“So noong araw na ‘yon, napunta siya sa green lane. It is being done systematically,” Gambala said.

If a cargo passes through the yellow lane, documents of the cargo are inspected to check if there are discrepancies.

If a cargo passes through the red lane, it will be subjected to 100 percent inspection, including x-

Gambala said that there is also a “super green lane” where major or multi-national companies pass. He said these companies’ accreditation and track records have been thoroughly studied by the bureau. Currently, there are about 200 companies allowed to pass through this lane.

The selectivity system that uses the “asycuda ++ program” is recognized by the WCO and is also being used by 90 countries in the world.

Gambala explained that Atty. Larribert Hilario, then chief of the risk management office (RMO), failed to encode information that would have classified EMT Trading, the consignee of the shipment, to go through the proper lane.

Gambala also revealed that since October 2016, no information had been encoded into the system.

According to Faeldon, Hilario was suspended on May 30, 2017, for negligence of duty.

Faeldon did not hide his dismay over the bureau’s screening capability, saying that since 2008, the x-ray machines had yet to detect illegal drugs.

“This is the truth on the capability of the Bureau of Customs,” he said.

He also declared that the BOC is set to procure four high-tech x-ray machines in order to address the current condition.

Source:
courtesy of MANILA BULLETIN

by Betheena Kae Unite

If you have any stories or news that you would like to share with the global online community, please feel free to share it with us by contacting us directly at [email protected]