The focus of the Bureau of Customs should be on trade facilitation and the modernization of customs administration, instead of its revenue collection performance. A discussion paper published by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies titled "Customs Brokerage Services and Trade Facilitation: A Review of Regulatory Coherence” said that there is no doubt that the BOC should prioritize the modernization of customs administration in the country. However, the report, authored by PIDS President Gilberto Llanto, PIDS Senior Research Fellow Adoracion Navarro, and research assistants Keith Detros and Ma. Kristina Ortiz, said that the agency can be side-tracked by the criticisms it is receiving, such as its failure to meet its revenue collection targets. The Department of Finance earlier reported that the revenues collected by the Bureau of Customs for January to September amounted to P224.45 billion, 10.4 percent short of the target set by the Development Budget Coordination Committee for the said period. For the full-year, the BOC is tasked to collect P340 billion. Customs Commissioner Rufino Biazon however said that the agency’s growth momentum "looks promising.” "From preliminary reports, we are poised to hit our internal revenue collection milestone of P300 billion in October. We will be within striking distance of the collection target set by the DBCC,” Biazon said.
