“The country’s ports operations have “long standing issues that have divided our ranks and keep us lagging behind our ASEAN neighbors.”

Top officials of the Bureau of Customs (BoC) recently acknowledged that the country’s ports operations are some of the poorest performers in Southeast Asia.

In a two-day port operations summit initiated by the BoC last July 12 and 13, Deputy Commissioner for Assessment Operations and Coordination, Edward James Buco, said the country’s ports operations have “long standing issues that have divided our ranks and keep us lagging behind our neighbors in terms of operations in the ports.”

The ASEAN groups the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Brunei.

According to Buco, the problems pertain to port congestion and the return of empty containers.

Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña said the issues Buco cited formed the basis for holding the summit held in Manila for the first time.

When asked by the Daily Tribune what he meant by Philippine port operations lagging behind ASEAN, Lapeña said port operations in the Philippines is at or near the bottom among its peers in the region.

Thus, the BoC, hand in hand with the Department of Public Works and Highways, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, the Philippine Ports Authority and other stakeholders need to flesh out the problems and subsequently come up with proposed solutions quickly.

He also acknowledged having been surprised when “other problems” were raised by the participants, saying it was the first time he learned of the issues.

Among the problems that surprised Lapeña were so-called port congestion fees, local charges imposed by international shipping lines and freight forwarders, the use of ports as storage facilities for importers, overstaying empty containers and leased boxes as well as nonexistent depots for the international shipping lines.

He also learned that international shipping lines impose their own charges that help to create cartels, unwarranted apprehension among towing firms, late transactions of customs brokers, the use of inaccurate weighing scales, redundant weighing exercises, uncalibrated weighing scales, inefficient loading and unloading equipment of terminal operators and many others.

The summit secretariat listed a total of 30 problem areas in port operations.

An importer claimed that some of the problems were the same as previously tackled in earlier fora.

Lapeña said existing customs personnel failed to brief his office of the gravity of the situation at the country’s ports.

He also said not all the problems mentioned in the summit are considered conclusive or final but vowed they will be thoroughly studied and evaluated by a monitoring task force soon created.

Lapeña said he will head the task force himself.

Some of the issues can be readily dealt with by his office but the others will be relayed to the House of Representatives for legal remedy in the form of amendments to the relevant legislation.