The Bureau of Customs (BOC) has discontinued the practice of requiring duty examiners to be present at the x-ray designated examination area (DEA), a move intended to cut redundancy of work and streamline the process of container release.
Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña on October 12 signed Customs Memorandum Order (CMO) No. 21-2017, which halts this practice by amending several sections of CMO 06-2014. Issued in 2014, CMO 06-2014 introduced the designation of duty examiners at the x-ray DEA, and realigned BOC’s X-ray Inspection Project (XIP) with the Enforcement Group (EG) of the Office of the Commissioner.
CMO 21-2017 excluded Section 2 of CMO 06-2014, which assigned duty examiners at the x-ray DEA, “to prevent collusion among x-ray operators.” Under Section 2, the duty examiners were tasked to remain at the DEA and not leave to perform other assessment functions as long as the x-ray operation was ongoing.
CMO 21-2017 also repeals these sections of CMO 06-2014: Section 3, which detailed the responsibilities of the duty examiner; the first part of Section 4, which stated the need for duty examiner/s to be around during spot-checking at the x-ray DEA; Section 5, which tackled the responsibility of the XIP field officer in relation to the presence of the duty examiner at the x-ray DEA; and Section 6, which charged the duty examiner to submit a daily report to the district collector.
CMO 21-2017, which took effect on October 12, notes that all other provisions of CMO 06-2014 remain effective.
An industry expert who requested anonymity said duty examiners have redundant duties that cause delays in the release of shipments that have already completed x-ray inspection. Trucks that went through x-ray at night usually had to wait for the duty examiner in the morning to be granted release. The expert also noted some duty examiners would ask for grease money before releasing
shipments.
CMO 21-2017 comes in the wake of another new order that increases the number of shipments to be tagged for the red lane and to undergo x-ray inspection. However, the directive has caused queuing of trucks with shipments for x-ray inspection inside the ports, prompting the customs commissioner to exempt several types of shipments from being directed to the red lane and from undergoing x-ray inspection. – Roumina Pablo
