MANILA, Philippines — Following the lead of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, smugglers will have their own offender profiling as an investigative tool to combat the illegal trade practice.

Customs Deputy Commissioner Peter Manzano said the Customs Run After Smugglers (RATS) program has sought for an expanded powers from the Office of the Commissioner to enable them to conduct a criminal profiling of smugglers.

Manzano said that the RATS division is handicapped in going after smugglers because of compartmentalization in the agency.

Manzano said there is no unified unit handling criminal cases against smugglers, with different departments working independently from one another.

And with the bureaucratic red tape, what happens is a disorganized agency, with the different departments not coordinating with the RATS division.

“We (RATS) need more powers so we can subpoena various documents. In an ideal world, all forfeiture cases (of the BoC) should be given to us. But we do not have that power,” Manzano said.

Manzano, who heads the RATS group, started handling cases to be filed to the DoJ in September last year.

He identified the lack of coordination among the different BoC departments as one obstacle in successfully going after smugglers—the perennial enemy of Customs.

To solve this problem, he has asked Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon to issue a Customs Memorandum Order that will provide additional powers to RATS to investigate and file bigger cases before the courts.

“Once that CMO is signed we can immediately begin our profiling of suspected smugglers,” Manzano said.

Criminal profiling is an investigative tool pioneered by the Scotland Yard where the perpetrator is identified based on the analysis of the offense and the manner by which it is committed. In the BoC profiling, it will involve tighter cases through a more methodical process.