Government cancels Customs modernization project

MANILA, Philippines — The government has canceled the $88-million World Bank loan for the Philippine Customs Modernization Project (PCMP) amid pending court cases that delay its implementation.

During the Senate committee on finance hearing on Tuesday, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto said the PCMP has been canceled.

“We will have another modernization project, but not through that (PCMP) because there’s a court case,” Recto said.

“There’s an injunction for the BOC (Bureau of Customs) to undertake the project,” he said.

The PCMP has a project cost of $104.38 million (P5.95 billion). Of the amount, $88.28 million will be funded through a loan from the World Bank and the remaining $16.1 million will be funded by the government.

The PCMP aims to improve the efficiency of the BOC and reduce trade costs. It also targets to streamline operations and processes and support the reform agenda by upgrading BOC systems, procedures and operational activities.

During the hearing, however, Recto said the project has been shelved.

BOC Commissioner Bienvenido Rubio said this stemmed from a petition filed in 2015 by mobile solutions provider Omniprime Marketing Inc., represented by lawyer Harry Roque, for a temporary restraining order.

“That case expanded the injunction to cover all enhancements – not just the national single window system, but the whole of the modernization and enhancement of the BOC,” Rubio said.

“The BOC by virtue of the mandatory injunction is precluded from enhancing our system,” he said.

The TRO was filed against the national single window system (NSW), which also led to the preventive suspension of then former BOC chief Alberto Lina for canceling the bidding for the P650-million project of the BOC.

Lina also faced plunder and graft cases.

With the cancellation of the PCMP, Recto said there remains a move to implement the NSW, which aims to prevent smuggling in the country.

Recto said there is a proponent for a public-private partnership project to put the NSW in place.

“There’s a company from Singapore together with Temasek. Only about half a billion will be spent for that,” Recto said.

“We are looking at that and we’re pretty confident that by May of next year, we will have that single window system in place,” he said.