Philippine Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña has allowed the manual untagging of shipments at the Port of Manila and Manila International Container Port (MICP) that have been subjected to x-ray inspection but are not suspected to contain smuggled or anti-social goods.
The new guideline was issued by Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña under Customs Memorandum Order (CMO) No. 25-2017 signed October 25, and is aimed at facilitating the clearance of legitimate goods at the Port of Manila and MICP.
Under CMO 25-2017, which took effect immediately, multiple container importations tagged for the X-ray Inspection Project at Port of Manila and MICP “would be subjected to x-ray inspection using the square root rule.”
The square root rule is an algorithm used by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) in inspecting multiple containers in a single shipment of a consignee that are tagged under the red lane of BOC’s selectivity system. This means BOC can inspect a certain number of containers of a shipment, and not all, for compliance.
If any container under the square root rule is found to contain any suspected items, all containers subject of the entire shipment shall undergo 100% physical examination or be issued an alert order.
If the containers that are subject to the square root rule are found to be in order using the non-intrusive scanning system, the remaining containers shall be immediately manually untagged for release by the authorized untagger from each field office.
Single container importations subjected to x-ray inspection shall be immediately untagged after analysis of x-ray findings find everything to be in order. However, if found to contain suspected items, such single container importations will be marked for verification and be subjected to 100% examination or issued an an alert order.
BOC is currently implementing a 20% threshold for the red lane facility at the Port of Manila and MICP, where 20% of the daily shipments going through the port are subjected to documentary review and mandatory x-ray inspection. For all other ports, the thresholds are 80% red and 20% yellow. BOC’s green lane, meanwhile, remains suspended.
The changes in BOC’s selectivity system took effect after the green lane was suspended last August 30 as a result of congressional inquiries into why P6.5 billion worth of smuggled methamphetamine hydrochloride was directed to the green lane instead of the red lane, thus eluding detection by customs personnel. – Roumina Pablo
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