BOC cites ISO certification as new ground to retake bldg

CEBU, Philippines - The National Government needs to rethink its position on why the Bureau of Customs-Port of Cebu (BOC) should be allowed to repossess or go back to its century-old building in Aduana, Cebu City.   This develops as all the 17 ports of BOC nationwide is gearing to be an ISO-certified ports.

ISO stands for “International  Organization of Standardization”. Instead of using an acronym (IOS) they used the Greek work for “equal”, which is ISO.

BOC-Cebu District Collector Ronnie Silvestre said one of the requirements for ISO-certification is that it should have its own infrastructure.

“Eh papaano tayong maging ISO-certified, wala nga tayong building. Tapos this Quality Management System in government is a program of the Aquino administration,” Silvestre said. (The Aquino administration is pushing for this program and yet, how can we be ISO-certified if we don’t even have our own building?)

BOC-Cebu officials continue to fight to repossess their old building, which was converted into the Malacañang sa Sugbo in 2004. But since Aquino assumed the presidency in 2010, the structure has become a white elephant.

BOC-Cebu is currently occupying the building owned by the Cebu Port Authority that already gave the latter until December 8 this year to move out. The CPA itself is gearing to be ISO-certified and they need the said building as part of its expansion of their facilities.

ISO is a worldwide federation of national standard bodies with representatives from each of approximately 140 countries.

At BOC, the objective of the ISO Project is to harmonize and align Customs operations with global best practices and standards through system alignment and readiness for certification with ISO 9001:2008 (Quality Management System) and alignment of the port’s key processes with ISO standards.

Silvestre said of all the 17 ports, none is ISO-certified yet but the Port of Batangas is already ISO-compliant. — (FREEMAN)