Why do we mark milestones or anniversaries like birthdays, weddings, foundation days, and other important life events?
Milestones represent significant episodes that give us an occasion to reflect on our respective visions or goals and a chance to take stock of how much we have grown or how far we have come in reaching our objectives.
They are markers that indicate if we have made progress or lagged and serve as motivational tools that allow one to align targets or priorities whether we celebrate people, events, or achievements.
As we celebrate the Bureau of Customs’ 121st Founding Anniversary with the theme “Nurturing the Next Generation: Promoting a Culture of Knowledge-sharing and Professional Pride in Customs”, I would like to express my gratitude to the men and women of the bureau for their everyday sacrifices and contributions to carry out our mission.
We look back on how far the bureau has gone in its long and colorful life as a government institution. Adapting to the tune of the times, we now find ourselves at a crossroads for the bureau to realize its full potential in this age of digitalization if it wants to succeed in its mission to be among the world’s best in terms of modernization and credibility.
The government’s second-largest revenue collection agency, next to the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the BC was created for three reasons: revenue collection, trade facilitation, and border protection.
Not to be outdone in the field of state-of-the-art internet services, it is now in the process of looking into the use of blockchain technology that would make it easier to know the origin of products or trace the documentation and the processes it undergoes to ensure its integrity, thus providing for speedy and transparent data collection and sharing.
Through the years after its founding on 6 February 1902 by the American colonial government — and despite disruptions caused by two world wars, the BoC continues to serve the country and its stakeholders in pursuit of its mandate.
A rich history of a burgeoning trade between our ancestors and their fellow merchants from neighboring countries in Southeast Asia, even before foreign explorers waded into our shores, a system of tribute or payment was already in place for goods exchanged or bartered, considered the forerunner of today’s taxes or levies imposed by governments all over the world.
Before Spain ended its colonial rule in the Philippines after more than three centuries, it left behind vestiges of its culture, religion, and traditions. It introduced Spanish customs and tariff laws that were still in effect when the Americans took over in 1898 until a Philippine Commission was installed that enacted the Tariff Revision Law of 1901.
The BoC was established by the Insular Government of the Philippine Islands, an unincorporated territory of the United States of America. The Philippine Customs Service, patterned after the American Customs Service, was set up in the later years of American rule. When the Department of Justice became a separate office from the Department of Finance, the Customs Service remained under the latter’s supervision.
Under the Commonwealth government established in 1935 as a prelude to independence, or the withdrawal of American sovereignty over the Philippines, the Philippine Legislature enacted Commonwealth Act 613, separating the Bureau of Immigration from the Bureau of Customs. In 1957.
Congress enacted the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines known as Republic Act 1937, otherwise known as the “Tariff Law of the Republic of the Philippines,” the first official expression of an autonomous Philippine Tariff Policy that ended full exemption privileges given to importations from the United States.
Then-President Ferdinand E. Marcos signed Presidential Decree 34 amending the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines on 2 October 1972, with further modifications made on 11 June 1978. With the accession of the Philippines to the Customs Co-Operation Council or CCC, Congress revised the Tariff and Customs Code to align our tariff system with the CCC Nomenclature as the Tariff and Customs Code of 1982.
A major overhaul of the BoC was in the works in 1986 with a massive expansion plan that added more offices and increased its workforce. And in response to new needs and revitalized goals, it embarked on a computerization program towards the start of the new millennium in 1998 by creating the Management Information System and Technology Group under a Deputy Commissioner.
Another milestone came about for the BoC when Republic Act 10863, otherwise known as the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act, was signed into law on 30 May 2016. CMTA amended the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines to modernize Customs rules and procedures for faster trade, reduce opportunities for corruption, and improve Customs service delivery and supply chain.
With 121 years of service from the dedicated and hardworking employees at the frontline, armed with legislation and poised for digitalization with the directive given by the President during his first State of the Nation Address to digitalize and streamline operations, the BoC vows to move forward and welcome the new challenges that lie ahead.