Philippine Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III has directed Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña to spearhead the creation of interagency task forces at the regional level to unify and beef up anti-smuggling operations in the provinces.
Dominguez said the cooperation between the Bureau of Customs (BOC), Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), and other relevant government agencies should be brought down to the regional level to ensure that provincial operations against suspected illicit trading practices are well coordinated.
“We would like the cooperation between the BIR and the Customs to go down to the regional level. They have to be meeting regularly on the regional level, not only in the national headquarters (in Manila),” Dominguez told Lapeña during an executive meeting. BOC and BIR are attached agencies of the Department of Finance (DOF).
Dominguez said he wants the two revenue-generating agencies to strengthen their cooperation at the regional level against smuggling activities, considering that most of the illicitly traded goods entering the country are being sold outside Metro Manila.
He recalled, for instance, the joint operation conducted recently by BIR and National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on a commercial establishment in Cabanatuan City, Nueva Ecija that was found to be storing 480 master cases of illicitly traded cigarettes.
Focus on certain imports
During the same meeting, Dominguez ordered the heads of the two agencies to “focus on rice, fuel, steel, cigarettes and food and agricultural products such as chicken, onion and garlic in beefing up the government’s efforts to combat smuggling.”
DOF stated that this is Dominguez’s response to Lapeña’s proposal to form a joint BOC-BIR task force, a move meant to revitalize the customs bureau’s anti-smuggling drive.
A few weeks after assuming office, Lapeña had unveiled his five-point program for BOC, with stopping corruption at BOC by implementing the “no tara, no gift and no-take” policy at the bureau given top priority status.
The other focus points are increasing revenues; ensuring trade facilitation; strengthening anti-smuggling efforts; and enhancing the personnel incentives and rewards system and compensation benefits for BOC personnel.
One-strike policy
DOF in a statement said Lapeña has also made good on his promise to implement the “one-strike” policy at the BOC, which has led to the relief of the district collectors in the Port of Manila and the Manila International Container Port (MICP) and to further recommendations to remove other personnel in these two offices.
He has also ordered surprise visits and inspections at Manila’s ports, which has led to the arrest of an MICP security guard and two of his accomplices, who were all caught in the act of receiving money from truck drivers last September 30.
BOC officials and employees will also be subjected to lifestyle checks, Lapeña said.
To increase revenue collections, Lapeña said he will, among others, speed up the collection and forfeiture of outstanding and demandable bonds; order the collection of additional duties, taxes or penalties from post audit; immediately auction off forfeited shipments and overstaying containers; and implement the one-strike policy against officials who fail to reach their monthly collection targets due to incorrect or undervaluation of goods under their jurisdiction.
Lapeña also plans to do away with benchmarking of container shipments, which is the practice of imposing only a discretionary value rather than conducting proper valuation and accurate assessment of duties. He said benchmarking is one of the causes of corruption in the bureau.
