The Anti-Smuggling bill must first be passed and enacted before the Senate ratifies the Revised Kyoto Convention (RKC) on global customs practices.

The senators must not believe those pushing for the ratification soon of the RKC, saying that the apprehensions of the Filipino industrial and agricultural sectors are “without basis.”

The Federation of Philippine Industries and the Alyansa Agrikultura have expressed their fears that ratification of the RKC and the resulting accession of the Philippines to the RKC (inclusion of the Philippines among the countries bound by it) will allow the Customs bureau to relax controls and give technical smugglers less trouble bringing in their misdeclared goods.

The basis for this apprehension is that the RKC has a provision in its Chapter A1 that “the Customs should normally accept the cargo declaration as the only required documentation . . . ”

This may simplify handling and release of cargo, which is good for honest importations. The trouble is that technical smuggling is rampant. The smugglers misdeclare the goods they are importing as to quantity and amount. Sometimes they even misdeclare what the goods in the containers are.

RKC’s Chapter A1 deals with the formalities of the handling of goods from the time the vessel carrying them arrives to the handling of the declaration of what these goods are, how much they cost and such details.

In order to make things difficult for technical smugglers, one of the provisions in the Anti-Smuggling Bill (Section 1000-A of the Senate’s consolidated version) would require that an electronic copy of the cargo and passenger manifest as well as the stowage plan of the vessel engaged in foreign trade be transmitted to the Bureau of Customs and the Trade and Industry and the Agriculture departments. This safeguard against technical smuggling—misdeclaration, undervaluation, etcetera of goods shipped—would be “inconsistent” with the RKC.

If the RKC is ratified by the Senate, without first waiting for the passage and enactment of the Anti-Smuggling bill, then the Philippines would no longer be able to check on the documentation about shipments to ascertain the veracity of the quantities and values declared.

Inward-forward manifest

At present the Customs bureau alone gets the Inward Forward Manifest (IFM) which states the contents of an imported cargo bundle or container. The document allows the government to know what the cargo is even before it is unloaded in a port. Copies of the IFMs for industrial and agricultural products used to be given also to both Trade and Agriculture. In 2004, when the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Task Force was abolished, the practice of giving IFMs to DTI and DA was stopped. That made it easier for technical smugglers to have their way—they only now have Customs men to deal with.

If as the Anti-Smuggling bill provides, DTI and AG also got copies as before, they could help monitor the correctness of the declarations. If the DTI and AG men involved became susceptible to bribes, then at least the technical smugglers would be sharing their wealth with more Filipino families. (Ha, ha, ha!)

There are other provisions in the Anti-Smuggling bill that both the Federation of Philippine Industries and Alyansa Agrikultura are urgently pleading with the lawmakers to pass—before ratifying the RKC.

These past two years, the FPI, the AA, together with the Free Trade Allianced (FTA), the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) and the Philippine Confederation of Exporters, have been campaigning for the passage of the Anti-Smuggling Bill. This bill was approved by the House.


Overwhelming support for consolidated bill

In the Senate, the consolidated bill is the result of the work of Senators Edgardo Angara, Francis Escudero, Jinggoy Estrada and Mar Roxas.

Not only Filipinos have been batting for the Anti-Smuggling bill.

The heads of the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, Australian-New Zealand Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the European Chamber of Commerce, the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Korean Chamber of Commerce, and the Philippine Association of Multinational Companies Regional Headquarters Inc. have signed a letter to Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile urging passage of the bill.

In addition to the groups mentioned above, the Bankers Association of the Philippines, the Business
Processing Association of the Philippines, Employers Confederation of the Philippines, the Financial
Executives Institute of the Philippines, the Makati Business Club, the Management Association of the Philippines, the Philippine Export Confederation and the Semiconductors and Electronics Industries in the Philippines have also urged passage of the bill.

The FPI has been stressing that “there is absolutely no urgency to ratify the RKC considering that even after 10 years from its adoption by the World Customs Organization in June 1999, only 64 members out of 175 have ratified the RKC as of August 3, 2009.”

It adds that because “The RKC by operation of international law will impinge on the legislative powers of Congress to pass statutes that will address present and future concerns affecting customs procedures and the protection of government revenues at the border, FPI submits the position that the Anti-Smuggling bill, which would tremendously plug the loopholes in the current law, should have clear priority over the RKC.”

We pray that the senators decide in favor of the Filipino people, the Philippine government and the Philippine economy as a whole.