PEZA, Bureau of Customs move to halt smuggling in ecozones

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) have implemented an automated export documentation system designed to make freight transactions more transparent and to eliminate smuggling in ecozones.

In a joint press conference, PEZA Director General Lilia B. de Lima said some of their locators are being used by smugglers. She said there are smugglers who are using the name of PEZA based firms to import duty free items.

She said Customs personnel have discovered that there are some unscrupulous traders who use the name of these businesses to bring in their goods. De Lima said, the BOC has apprehended some businessmen masquerading as PEZA locators trying to bring in rice via the port of Cebu.

“Companies inside PEZA are scared of smuggling and they are not smugglers. It is unfair that they are being used in this way,” De Lima noted.

BOC Commissioner Angelito A. Alvarez said PEZA firms are being used in two ways.

First is the entry of imported goods and the other is the selling of goods that are supposed to be for export in the domestic market. For exports, most of the goods are garments while for imports most of the contraband are steel products and resin.

Yesterday, PEZA and BOC signed joint memorandum orders (JMOs) for the expanded implementation of an automated export documentation system (AEDS) and an automated cargo transfer system (ACTS) for economic zone enterprises in all product sectors and covering export shipments loaded and import shipments discharged at all international airports and seaports starting next year.

ACTS was first implemented in 2001 for import shipments in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport and the Mactan International Airport while AEDS was launched in 2002 for electronic products. Both the ACTS and AEDS have been eaxpanded to cover more airports and seaports and have been expanded to be limited to electronic goods only.

Both AEDS and ACTS use single administrative documents with system generated encrypted bar codes that serve as the electronic signatures of the documents. The bar codes eliminate human intervention thus reducing the probability of corruption.