Customs mulls scrapping of ‘green lanes’

October 24, 2017 - 7:16 AM
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BOC with logo
The Bureau of Customs building, with its logo (inset). INTERAKSYON FILE

MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Customs is eyeing the abolition of the currently suspended “green lane” once the agency has perfected the computerization of its systems.

“Yes, I am saying that if there is no need for the green lane, then you remove that,” Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña said, but stressed this could happen only when “the selectivity system of our computer system has been perfected, until now it is not perfected.”

“I cannot allow another 604 (kilos of crystal meth or shabu) to pass through,” he said, referring to the P6.4 billion drug shipment that slipped through the BOC and was later seized at a warehouse in Valenzuela City.

Cargo passing through the green lanes is not required to pass through the BOC’s X-ray machines.

Lapeña suspended the green lanes believing this was how contraband slips out of pots.