The primers intend to educate passengers of Customs procedures and laws as well as give them a mechanism for giving feedback on the service they were given at the airport.
The distribution of the primers was presided over by no less than Customs Commissioner Alexander Arevalo and BOC-NAIA District Collector Ricardo Belmonte.
Belmonte said international airlines are expected to immediately distribute the primers to their Manila-bound passengers, who will be informed of the goods and items that are prohibited from being taken into the country, those that are regulated, and those that are taxable.
The primers also has a section for a feedback form that encourages passengers to comment on the BOC services at the NAIA.
Belmonte said the information on the goods and items that are subject to Customs tax and duties intends to educate passengers extensively to prevent disputes at the Customs lanes at the NAIA Terminals I and II.
Carmelita Manahan-Talusan, NAIA collector, said the feedback form was included in a bid to provide passengers a forum, where they can vent their complaints and avoid to some degree, disputes that arise at the airport.
Talusan pointed out that the feedback form can also ensure transparency since passengers can point out irregularities.
He said they will soon have the Customs declaration forms attached to the Customs primers to make it more easy to distribute to passengers.
The glossy primers, printed out at no cost to government since printing was shouldered by a telecommuncations company, will also be distributed to the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Tourism, Bureau of Quarantine, embassies, travel agencies and other agencies.
It was learned that the Customs primer program of BOC-NAIA had been recently hailed during a recent Solana Convention Summit conducted by the Office of the Ombudsman with Tony Kwok, Hong Kong’s famed anti-corruption czar, as guest, as a first of its kind initiative of a government agency meant to ensure transparency and improvement of delivery of service to the people.