The Bureau of Customs-Ninoy Aquino International Airport (BOC-NAIA) has created a technical committee to establish processes for the transhipment of e-commerce goods and postal items.
The technical committee was created under NAIA Customs Special Order No. 12-03-2019 “in view of the need to align customs processes, specifically on transhipment with the provisions of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA) and at the same time to be attuned with international best practices and current trends in E-commerce.”
Under the special order signed by BOC-NAIA district collector Carmelita Talusan, the technical committee will formulate and develop business processes pursuant to existing rules and regulations on transhipment, including the required documents and information to be submitted and to be supplied by the concerned party relative to the processing and clearance of transhipment goods and postal items.
The technical committee shall also define the roles, obligations, accountabilities of all the parties involved in the process such as, but not limited to, customs facility warehouse, airline, designated postal operator of the Philippines, and concerned division/offices of BOC NAIA.
While waiting for the CMTA’s implementing rules and regulations on transhipment, the technical committee is tasked to ensure that all existing rules and regulations are strictly observed.
Moreover, the technical committee shall evaluate applications to operate transhipment within the jurisdiction of BOC NAIA and make the necessary recommendation to the district collector for accreditation.
TWG officials
The chairman of the TWG is Michael Angelo Vargas, BOC NAIA deputy collector for Operations, and its vice chair, is Wilnora Cawile, chief of the Central Mail Exchange Center.
TWG members are Atty Marlon Agaceta, Atty Tristan Armando Langcay, Arnaldo Dela Torre, Rosalina Mayorga and ocelyn Reyes.
The secretariat is composed of Melencio Araracap, Julius Gerald Altiche and Michael Lardizabal.
Southeast Asia is the fastest growing e-commerce market in the world, estimated to have spent US$23 billion in 2018 and forecast to spend $102 billion in 2025, a report by Google and Singapore-based investment company Temasek said. The Philippines in 2018 was estimated to have spent $1.5 billion on e-commerce products, a figure forecast to balloon to $10 billion in 2025. – Roumina Pablo
