By Minerva BC Newman
CEBU CITY, October 21 (PIA) --- Customs Commissioner
John Philip Sevilla bared import entry of goods is now being posted monthly at
the Bureau of Customs (BOC) website as part of the reforms on transparency in
line with the ‘Matuwid Na Daan’ policy of the Aquino Administration.
“Every beginning of the
month, usually every 5th working day, we update the posting on the entry of
goods” from cars to imported onions that enter into the country, said Sevilla
during a recent talakayan on good governance in Cebu.
Sevilla lamented that
public response seems to be lacking on the agency’s efforts for reforms. “I
hope there is more public response as they see the beauty of what we are doing
now in initiating reforms within the bureaucracy which have never been done
before,” said Sevilla.
The customs chief said
the data that is posted averages 120,000 import transactions every month as he
urged people to check the data “and tell us whether the values of import goods
are fair.”
Sevilla said with the
thousands of import transactions every month, the BOC can no longer check each
transaction to determine whether the values of import goods are declared true
to its worth or undervalued.
“We no longer have the
time to go through the 120,000 data with valued goods every month. This is why
we want the public to check our website and inform us whether the prices of
import goods that have arrived are declared fairly,” said Sevilla.
“For example, a steel
manufacturer can complain after checking our website that an importer of steel
products has declared the amount too high,” cited Sevilla.
Sevilla also said the
posting of import goods or products indicate the agency’s pursuit to be
transparent in all its transactions “and we want the public to know we are not
hiding anything.”
Currently, the customs
commissioner said they are working on making the filing of import entry easier
as he promised that by next year, “filing an import entry with the BOC will be
much easier than filing with the BIR.”
The talakayan on
good governance also featured Deputy Commissioner Lilia Guillermo of the Bureau
of Internal Revenue and General Counsel Camilo Correa of the Securities and
Exchange Commission. It was part of the two-day ‘Good Governance Dialogues: A
Regional Forum on Open Government and the National Budget’ for the Visayas leg
primarily undertaken by the Department of Budget and Management.
(mbcn/PIA-7)