Local manufacturers see a vastly improved campaign against smuggling after new Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez committed to adopt some of the proposed measures of the Federation of Philippine Industries (FPI) to curb smuggling activities in the country.

FPI chairman Jesus L. Arranza told reporters that during a meeting with the Bureau of Customs, Alvarez pledged to harness a harmonious working relations with the new Customs leadership, which did not happen in the previous administration due to the reluctance of the previous commissioners to implement the numerous suggestions of the group.

“By and large, the FPI is satisfied with the sincerity of the new commissioner and FPI will end its full support to the new commissioner. We observed that we will have a better working relationship with the new customs chief, and definitely we see improvement from the previous one in terms of determination and sincerity to fight smuggling,” Jesus L. Arranza, FPI chairman and concurrent chair of the group’s anti-smuggling committee, said.

Among the FPI proposals that Alvarez welcomed include the release of the incoming ship’s inward foreign manifest to concerned agencies, publication of updated reference values, and compulsory acquisition of grossly undervalued imports.

The FPI also proposed the hiring of third-party auditing firms to augment the BoC’s post-entry auditi group (PEAG), which can only audit 3 percent of importations due to lack of personnel at this time.

Arranza explained to Alvarez that the government will not incur additional cost on this since the private auditing firms will only get a percentage of the value of illegal importations that they will uncover.

The Commissioner, Arranza said, is also open to the participation of business organizations in the accreditation of importers, admitting that indeed there are so many fictitious importers right now.

“He is so open that he wants FPI to come up with all their suggestiosn at the soonest possible time so he could implement immediately those that are implementable. Our agreement is we will write down everything, send ti to him, then we will meet again, identify the doables and what needs executive orders, memorandum or new law,” Arranza said.