All transit shipments bound for Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) economic zones and other special economic zones tagged “orange” and “red” in the Bureau of Customs’ (BOC) selectivity system will be required to undergo 100% x-ray examination and/or physical inspection prior to release from the port of discharge.

According to Office of the Commissioner (OCOM) Memo No. 110-2021 dated July 8, the policy aims to safeguard BOC’s revenue collection and forms part of the agency’s intensified campaign against smuggling and other forms of violation of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA) and other related laws.
BOC’s selectivity system refers to the use of risk-based color channeling to manage risks and allow the agency to “allocate its scarce resources to the high-risk areas while increasing the efficiency of the clearance process for low-risk shipments.”

Shipments tagged as orange—identified as medium- to high-risk cargoes—will have to pass through x-ray scanning and, should the images be found to be suspicious, will also be subjected to physical examination. Shipments tagged orange include, among others, those covered by existing policies and regulations for mandatory x-ray scanning and those randomly selected by the selectivity system.

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