CALASIAO – A top official of the Bureau of Customs said on Saturday that the Philippine Customs office will soon be at par with the best Customs offices of the world through its continuing computerization program and acquisition of modern equipment, systems and technology.

Lawyer Gallant D. Soriano, officer-in-charge in the Office of the Deputy Customs Commissioner, said with these innovations, the program “nothing moves in Customs without being captured by the computers” shall have been achieved.

Speaking to newsmen here, the youngest son of the late Rep. Jack Soriano, also former mayor of San Carlos City, said this will be achieved through the second phase of BoC’s computerization program called the Automated Systems Customs Data (ASYCUDA) to be completed in January next year.

Soriano said the project was bankrolled by P500 million from President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s e-Governance fund.

Completion of the project, said Soriano, will be a big boon to the bureau which shall become “paper-less, queue-less and “cash-less” as exporters and importers will all pay customs duties through the banks.

The project which is just a continuation of BoC’s computerization launched from 1994 to 1999 that had already become obsolete, aims to “fully computerize and automate the systems in the Customs,” said Soriano, a former councilor of San Carlos City and law professor at the University of Pangasinan.

The first phase of the project, which Soriano said had already “outlived its usefulness”, was covered by the Philippine Tax Computerization Program that was jointly undertaken by the BoC and the Bureau of Internal Revenue and funded by a U.S. $35 million World Bank grant.

Phase 2 of the computerization program, launched almost seven years after Phase 1, aims to cover both imports and exports

The program gives the people easier access to BoC “anytime, anywhere and using any device”, Soriano explained.

He said the technology can also enable people to reach BoC by texting using the SMS (short message service) through their mobile phones.

Using the SMS, one can request from BoC for verification as to where his shipment is, his payment of customs duties, including the latter’s entry.

At the same time, Soriano admitted he is the one in charge of BoC’s Non-Intrusive Container Inspection System Project (NICISP), using 10 scanner equipment acquired through a concessional loan from China, payable in 20 years at two percent interest per annum with a five-year grace period.

Two of the equipment will be installed in the Port of Manila, two others at the Manila International Container Port and one each in Subic, Batangas, Cagayan de Oro, Zamboanga and Davao ports.

President Arroyo is set to inaugurate on Oct. 10 the five equipment that already arrived, now being assembled for commissioning before they are made fully operational. “It is non-intrusive in the sense that containers will no longer be opened or brought down for physical inspection,” Soriano explained.