Customs stakeholders hit record alert orders

MANILA, Philippines - Stakeholders in the Bureau of Customs (BOC) lamented the irregular excessive issuance of alert orders by the bureau’s Intelligence Group (IG), headed by Deputy Commissioner Jesse Dellosa, and the similarly mysterious speedy lifting of seizure orders that result from the alert orders on supposedly illegal shipments.

To support the lifting of the alert orders, it was learned that the IG had assumed the function of assessment, instead of referring this to the BOC’s Assessment and Operations Coordinating Group (AOCG).

Worse, it was learned that in several documented cases, Dellosa had sent endorsement letters that effected the issuance of lifting orders on consignments that were supposed to have been seized due to discrepancy of more than 30 percent in undervaluation or underdeclaration.

Sources in the BOC told The STAR that Dellosa had continued his seeming policy of liberal issuance of alert orders despite previous moves last November – when Ruffy Biazon was still BOC commissioner – to call the attention of the retired general on the matter.

It was learned that customs brokers who suffer from the indeterminate issuance of alert orders decline to speak on record to complain, fearing that their consignments might be subjected to the free-flowing alert orders from Dellosa’s IG.

Sources said that BOC Commissioner John Sevilla has failed to take any action on the matter.

The STAR tried but failed to get comment from Dellosa, who did not answer text messages sent to his cellphone.

Just new to his post, having been appointed to the BOC last September, Dellosa had issued sometime in October alert orders that have been the subject of complaints from business groups and importers due to delays caused by these to the flow of goods from the country’s ports.

Last November, Biazon said there may be a need to educate Dellosa about the existing guidelines on the issuance of so-called “alert orders” where certain cargo shipments are held for 48 hours for a supposed inspection.

“There are existing guidelines and procedures. I guess we just have to align the deputy commissioners with the existing guidelines,” Biazon had told reporters.

Back then, complaints have been made regarding Dellosa’s reported liberal issuance of alert orders, which supposedly reached 140 over a two-week period.

Biazon had also admitted that many inspections done under the alert orders resulted in questions on valuation of shipments, which means that these merely involve assessment.

An alert order, it was learned, should be lifted within 48 hours so as not to hinder the processing of cargo.