Automating the entire process at the ports may just be the untying of the perplexing Gordian knot, which Alexander the Great did with a slash of a sword.
Several measures, some outright desperate, had been employed to halt corruption and the entry of smuggled products, particularly narcotics, into the country due to the weak monitoring system.
Full digitalization at the ports through the Trusted Operator Program–Container Registry and Monitoring System or TOP-CRMS, complemented by a similar determined push at the Bureau of Customs, may just provide the solution to the smuggling torment.
A 2017 fiasco involving the smuggling of a ridiculous volume of crystal meth or shabu estimated to be worth P6.4 billion that escaped port authorities, only to be seized in an anti-drugs operation in a warehouse in Valenzuela, showcased the ordeal the government faced against illicit activities at the ports.
Then-President Rodrigo Duterte placed Nicanor Faeldon, who is legendary in the armed forces as an elusive mutineer during the watch of former President Gloria Arroyo, as Bureau of Customs head with the specific order to break the syndicates that have grown deep roots in the bureau.
Faeldon brought in his fellow Magdalo mutineers who introduced an intricate system that should have been fool-proof against the syndicates.
All of them including Faeldon were reduced to tears in the end as the syndicates proved to be tougher than the Marines.
The web of corruption in the BoC, which should also apply to the ports, has proven to be resilient against reforms.
The group responsible for the shabu shipment made a statement that the government was impotent when ranged against it.
It came to the point that the previous President proposed the privatization of port operations and the revenue agencies to solve the smuggling scourge.
Duterte said privatizing the revenue collection services would put an end to the well-entrenched syndicates composed of corrupt officials and employees.
“The Bureau of Customs should be privatized. That is the only way we could dismantle and end the systemic corruption in that agency,” Duterte added.
Several international firms such as the Swiss Societe Generale de Surveillance, Bureau Veritas, Intertek, TÜV, Germanischer Lloyd, AS International, and Cotecna offer valuation services for revenue collection.
These outfits thrive where the problem of corruption in government is persistent.
During the term of the late President Cory Aquino, the SGS was commissioned to provide pre-shipment valuation services that helped reduce technical smuggling.
Duterte’s proposal was more radical, which was the complete transfer of services that were the source of corrupt practices to private firms.
The BoC and BIR have become “bloated government agencies which could no longer supervise and control the actions of its officials and employees,” according to Duterte.
He added that privatizing the BOC would eliminate political interference in its operations and free it from the image of being a “fund-raising” agency for the political party in power during election seasons.
In one swift stroke, which is the digital shift, most of the problems of smuggling and corruption that have hounded the government for eons may just find a quick resolution.
Overcoming those who want the status quo for selfish ends will thus be the last hurdle.