(NAR) VOL. 15 NOS. 1-2 / JANUARY - MARCH 2004
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.