BOC clarifies questions on treason, abortion

MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Customs-Ninoy Aquino International Airport (BOC-NAIA) recently clarified certain entries included in the Customs declaration form, which banned the importation of materials advocating treason and abortion products.

The form, filled out by inbound passengers, was cited by local tour guide Carlos Celdran on his Twitter account, who asked if item No. 7 which bans “Materials advocating or inciting treason, rebellion, insurrection, sedition against the Government of the Philippines” and item No. 8 banning “Abortion paraphernalia,” were new additions.

“Has anyone noticed 7 and 8 in the new customs forms? Can someone please explain to me what would qualify as treason? This is scary because I don’t remember treason nor abortifacients being included in the questionnaire before,” Celdran tweeted.

BOC-NAIA Law Division chief Marlon Agaceta clarified that these are not new policies being implemented by the BOC, but were just specified in the new forms that they printed out and circulated in all airports since the start of this year. 

“These have long been prohibited items, this is an old rule that was covered by the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines and are still covered even in the new Customs Modernization and Tariff Act. These items have already been previously covered by the ‘prohibited’ clause in the forms, it is just now it has been spelled out that these items are prohibited,” said Agaceta.

He explained that bringing into the country “materials advocating or inciting treason, rebellion, insurrection, sedition against the Government of the Philippines” refer to items where the offense is glaring and provokes inciting the people to declare war against the government or overthrow the government and other situations that would clearly show these violations.

While there had been no recent reports of such items being discovered and seized by airport Customs personnel, Agaceta said in the event someone brings into the country these contraband goods, it “could constitute a criminal offense and they could be charged” before a prosecutor’s office. – With Christina Mendez