Customs special unit cited

MANILA, Philippines - The Optical Media Board (OMB) and the Office of Commissioner Bureau of Customs have cited the role of the BOC's X-ray Special Division both in revenue collection and OMB’s campaign against pirated items, particularly pornographic CDs and DVDs and smuggled imported goods.

The X-Ray Special Project Office of the Commissioner (OCOM), headed by multi-awarded collector Lourdes Mangaoang, was credited in 2009 for registering around 1,488 containerized shipments in container vans that were imposed additional duties and taxes and the issuance of warrants of arrests, seizure and detention on about 40 shipments with a total estimated value of P423 million.

The items include regular chemicals, undeclared CDs and DVDs, highly regulated air soft guns, mis-declared rice shipment and motor vehicles.

The Optical Media Board, then headed by administrator Edu Manzano, commended her for her efforts in the confiscation of two replicating machines, 2000 pieces of porno DVDs, 480,000 blank CDs worth millions of pesos on Dec. 27, 2007.

Mangaoang was also commended by Commissioner Napoleon Morales for the effective deployment of X-ray scanners in all major ports that facilitated the processing of 12,622 entries which translated to millions of pesos in revenue.

At present, the X-Ray Special Division is intensifying scanning and examination of all imported goods in response to the directive of Commissioner Morales to step up efforts to raise revenue in a bid to meet, if not surpass its target of P325 billion for this year.

The role of the X-ray Division under Mangaoang is vital to the campaign against technical smuggling through misdeclaration by importers, BOC officials said.

It said that the bureau can meet its target if all collection districts in various ports were determined to meet targets, citing the past performance of Mangaoang as former collector of various ports where she overshot assigned targets.