The Bureau of Customs-Port of Cebu called for a coordinated response to combat the risks posed by serious and organized crimes in the country.
Customs Port of Cebu District Collector Ricardo Uy Morales II cited the need for a strong and continuous “whole of government” approach to effectively counter the smuggling of goods.
The BOC Port of Cebu recently organized a focused group discussion with the Serious and Organized Crime Threat Assessments (SOCTA) Research Team of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC).
Dialogs revolved around revenue collection, trade facilitation and border protection. The leaders of the Port of Cebu shared the strategies they implemented to overcome the encountered challenges.
“We thank the PAOCC for incorporating the Port of Cebu in its SOCTA. We hope that our input will serve as a basis for future policy recommendations. The Port of Cebu reaffirms our commitment to the PAOCC as a partner in combating illegal trade and smuggling,” Morales said.
The objective of SOCTA is to analyze and describe criminal markets and crime areas within the country.
SOCTA will also focus on identifying the networks involved in these criminal activities, whether they are organized groups or individual criminals.
SOCTA will also examine the broader environmental factors that influence the nature of serious and organized crime in the Philippines.
“With the strong collaboration with PAOCC and other partner-agencies, the Port shall relentlessly pursue our ‘whole of government’ approach against the entry of smuggled goods,” Morales said.