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As a reminder to all concerned the memorandum of this Office dated February 14, 2003 providing for the Guidelines in the Examination of Reefer Shipments is re-introduced into this Order, as follows:

To prevent misdeclaration of shipments in refrigerated containers (henceforth, reefer shipments) and such other fraud upon Customs, the following guidelines are hereby promulgated:

1.   All reefer shipments - whether entered for consumption, warehousing or domestic transshipment - shall be subject to Customs examination/inspection, except as herein otherwise provided;

2.   To prevent unnecessary delay, reefer shipments involving fresh and frozen meat/poultry, vegetables and other equivalent products shall be subject to a one-time examination/inspection, to be conducted jointly with other concerned agencies, such as, the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI), National Meat Inspection Commission (NMIC) and Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI).  For this purpose, necessary steps must be taken to ensure proper and harmonious coordination with the concerned agencies.

3.   To protect reefer shipments from deterioration, and/or contaminating other shipments, precautionary measures must be adopted.  Thus, if a 100% examination shall be necessary, the same shall be conducted in a cold storage facility or in a location that will serve this purpose.

4.   Said examination/inspection shall be scheduled immediately and shall be conducted within the regular office hours/day.  If for valid reasons, said examination/inspection may continue/or may be conducted outside the regular office hours/days.  Services rendered outside regular office hours/days shall be subject to overtime fees at applicable rates under existing laws, rules and regulations.

5.   Except when alerted by appropriate authorities or when otherwise directed by the Commissioner, the following shall not be subject to this Order:

a.   Import shipments destined for PEZA - registered ecozones, duly covered by Import Permit issued by PEZA,

b.  Import shipments destined to semicon industries/members of SEIPI.

c.  Temperature sensitive and non-agricultural products such as paints, organic peroxides and other chemicals.

The District Collector shall be responsible for the smooth, proper and effective implementation of this Order.  To monitor releases of reefer shipments, the District Collector shall submit a weekly report to this Office on the number of reefer shipments examined and released by his Port, including the findings of such examinations.

All concerned Customs officers/personnel involved in the implementation of this Order are directed to perform their responsibilities as required herein.

Without prejudice to criminal charges as may be warranted, any violation by any Customs officer/personnel of this Order shall be liable to administrative charges, such as, but not limited to dishonesty, neglect of duty, misconduct, inefficiency or incompetence, which could either be grave, less grave or light, depending on their gravity or depravity and effects on the government service, under pain of penalties which shall range from suspension for six (6) months and one day to one (1) year or dismissal as provided for under Rule IV of Uniform Rules on Administrative Cases in the Civil Service.

All other orders, rules, regulations inconsistent with this Order are hereby repealed or modified accordingly.

This Order shall take effect immediately.

Adopted: 27 Jan. 2004


(SGD.) ANTONIO M. BERNARDO
Commissioner