Travelers arriving at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport are being reminded that they may not bring materials advocating or inciting rebellion or sedition and other banned items into the country.
The reminder comes as airport authorities began reimposing a policy requiring all arriving airline crew and passengers of international flights to fill out a Customs baggage declaration form before landing at the NAIA.
Other prohibited items include abortion paraphernalia, counterfeit goods, misbranded food and drugs, Philippine currency of more than P50,000 and foreign currency of more than $10,000. These items will be forfeited in favor of the government while importers or carriers can be prosecuted and penalized under the law.
Ma. Lourdes Mangaoang, NAIA Customs deputy collector for passenger service, said all airline passengers and crew members must accomplish a Customs declaration form and submit it to a Customs officer.
The airport authority, during the time of then President Benigno Aquino III, stopped implementing the policy and the scanning of baggage, saying the system was one of the causes of passenger congestion at the arrival area, especially during peak hours.
But Mangaoang said the bureau is bringing back the form based on orders from the Department of Finance.
Mangaoang cited a Customs law provision that “whenever dutiable goods are not declared by any person arriving within the Philippines, such goods shall be seized and the person may obtain release of such goods, if not imported contrary to any law, upon payment of a surcharge equivalent to 30 percent of the landed cost of such goods.”
Mangaoang said her office earlier wrote a letter addressed to Airline Operators Council chairman Edgar Allan Nepomuceno informing them about the reimplementation of the policy beginning July 1.
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