July 24, 2009
AMLCS-OED NO. 09-288 (2)
Hon. Napoleon L. Morales
Commissioner
Bureau of Customs
G/F OCOM Bldg., BOC, Port Area
Manila City
Dear Commissioner Morales :
The Philippines was recently evaluated by a joint World Bank/Asia Pacific Group (APG) Assessment Team. One of the key findings noted by the Assessment Team in its Detailed Assessment Report (DAR) is the weak implementation by Philippine customs authorities of the cross border reporting requirement and the capacity to discover cash couriers, i.e., the statistics on currency declarations showed only the data from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) and no data at all from other international airports and seaports in the Philippines. Incidentally, we invited your agency to send a representative to the APG Plenary Meeting which was held in Brisbane, Australia on July 6-10, 2009. However, no representative from your agency participated in said meeting. During this Plenary Meeting, the Philippine DAR was discussed, including the aforesaid key findings.
In view thereof, we recommend the following remedial measures to address the aforesaid deficiencies and weaknesses observed by the Assessment Team:
1. to require all district collectors...
