Those who are not interested may skip to read this lengthy article. IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOM LAWS - DETRIMENTAL TO THE GROWTH OF OUR MARITIME INDUSTRY Our current immigration and custom laws, coupled by our lawmaker’s failure to review and amend antiquated laws, is one of the causes of malaise afflicting our maritime industry. They seem to be following an idiotic principle that when something is not broken, why fix it? Since time immemorial, shipping agents, managers, ship owners, charterers and the likes, have had been complaining about the activities of Bureau of Immigration and Deportation (BID) and Bureau of Custom (BOC) personnel particularly in their conduct of entrance/clearance formalities, collection of excessive dues and overtime payments. In fact, this was also one of my complaints during the time when I was still sailing as Master onboard foreign-going ships. While these corrupt practices by our port officials has been going on since the time the Americans gave us the free hand to control our sea ports, it is only now that I’ve decided to look into it hoping to find a lawmaker that could initiate reforms or amendments to our archaic maritime laws. The common complaints of maritime industry players are: 1. When ships arrive at any Philippine port from abroad, she cannot commence cargo operations unless she completes the Immigration, Quarantine and Custom (IQC) formalities. No matter what time a ship arrives, she is compelled to wait for these people to the detriment of the profit-oriented ship owners and charterers who always wanted a quick turnaround. While the agent notifies the IQC people ahead of time, they usually come aboard 2-3 hours late and charged the vessel with overtime and attendance fees. Charges usually increases when boarding is made after office hours especially during the wee hours of the morning. Worse, all payments made are not covered by official receipts. In comparison to port authorities abroad, they boards vessels at the dock (ships are oftentimes ordered to proceed directly to berth), after conducting their business with master, leaves the vessel alone to commence cargo operations. The whole process of attendance and inspections only takes a few minutes, and I don’t remember ever seeing a bill for overtime and attendance fees. 2. All IQC boarding officers expect and often demands gratuities from the Master. It is a gift-giving tradition that over the years transformed into a Master’s obligation. It also became the standard practice and the unwritten rule in port. Bonded stores are sealed to prevent illegal sale of duty free articles. However, before sealing, cartoons of imported cigarettes and bottles of whiskey are taken out from the store and distributed to the boarding teams and their assistants. As if these are not enough, the squad also goes on a shopping spree inside the ship’s provision stores, refer rooms and cold storages under the pretense of conducting sanitary inspections or checking the area for any presence of stow-aways. Oftentimes, the crewmembers are infuriated by these practices. They became very unpopular to sea-going personnel even branding them as “crocodiles”. “ONLY IN THE PHILIPPINES”, they all said. Very embarrassing, indeed, especially when you hear this remark from a foreign Master. Port authorities abroad, particularly Japan, China, Singapore and other countries in Asia has the opposite. If you offer something they will only ask for a glass of water. Forcing them to accept gifts and bonded articles might even draw suspicion that you’re engage in illegal activities. 3. Under BID rules, when a foreigner is onboard, regardless of nationality, an Immigration officer is assigned to carry out a 24/7 under-guarding. Apart from the free board and lodging provided by the vessel, they charged the ship owner with 16 hours overtime per day although in reality they’re are rarely seen on board. When asked why they aren’t guarding the foreign crew, they would comment, “It’s not necessary. No one in his right mind would desert his ship just to find work in a country that has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world”. “But why the overtime charge?” I asked. “Well, we have to. Even if we’re not around, we still have the right to collect overtime payment because that’s what the law says”. Something is indeed wrong with this law. Again, payment of overtimes does not carry any official receipts. They will just send you a bill right after the ship depart, typewritten under a piece of coupon bond. Ship owners and operators are desperate to find somebody who can put an end to this crooked system. 4. It follows that when foreign crewmembers are replaced, under-guarding is carried out from the vessel to the airport. Similar charges of overtime pays are made by the BID personnel, but this time with matching meals and traveling expenses. However, I have yet to see an immigration officer actually accompanying an off-signing foreign crew to the airport. When asked why BID have this law for alien seafarers when in fact any foreign tourists can enter the country through the airport without visa and freely roam the country. No one could provide a logical explanation. 5. Under BOC rules, a custom inspector is assigned onboard every foreign-trading ships operating in Philippine waters. This is supposedly to discourage or prevent any attempt to load exported or land imported cargoes without payment of custom tax and duties. Yet, you rarely see any of them on deck. They are provided with free food and accommodation but they spend most of their time inside the cabin and accommodations and sleep out the entire duration of cargo operations. In some cases, they even disembarked the vessel and assigned non-BOC personnel to act as inspector. Charges of overtime pay (without proper receipts), similar to BID, are made after the ship departs. Ironically, what the BID guy is saying is correct. Sec. 7 A. of the immigration act, states: “Immigration employees may be assigned by the commissioner of immigration to do overtime work at rates fixed by him when the service rendered is to be paid for by shipping companies and airlines or person served” The functions and basis of overtime works is embodied under the provision of Sections 25, 29 and 33 of the same immigration act, authorizing the immigration officers to examine arriving aliens on whether they’re of “excluded classes” and detaining them for a sufficient length of time even at the mere suspicion that they belong to these classes. Section 33 also requires the master, agent, owner or consignee to detain on board alien seaman until the immigration in charge has inspected such seaman and that no alien seaman employed on board shall be paid off or discharge while the vessel is in Philippine port without permission of the immigration authorities. This explains the right of an immigration officer to under guard alien crew or escort vacationing foreign seafarers from vessel to the airport. Most laws created for our seaborne commerce are primitive and outmoded. Some were formed during the time of the Spanish galleon trade. Even those created for us by the U.S. government badly need amendments and revisions. A glaring example is the “Philippine Immigration Act of 1940”, which was formed when the country was still under American rule. None of our lawmakers ever attempted to review, much less amend, this law. Today, this provision of the ‘immigration act” (with great similarity to custom laws as far as overtime and attendance fees are concerned ) have been severely abused by both BID and BOC personnel charging ship owners with exorbitant fees even if no overtime work had been performed. It became the norm in the maritime industry and the main source of corruption at the port. It was as it, the “immigration act” was passed into law to make life miserable for ship owners. In retrospect, the position of the industry players is that if the task of these people is to enforce custom and immigration laws, then it should be the state that should compensate them for their services, including any overtime works performed, not the ship owners. The state should also provide them with representation and food allowances and not pester shipowners for their needs. Given an option, ship owners will never accommodate these people just to incur extra expenses. Likewise, the industry also finds under-guarding and escorting of foreign crew unnecessary. How come in Japan and other industrialized nation of the world no custom or immigration personnel stays on board the ship to guard the crew and cargoes? Escorting of off-signing crew is not done either. They usually travel on their own to the airport assisted by their agents. Yet, cases of smugglings and desertions in these nations are rare. If there is, they’re easily caught by efficient law enforcers. The “immigration act of 1940” continues to prejudice our shipping, seafaring sector and the entire maritime industry. There is more than one reason why it should be revised or amended. To prove my point, I wish to invite all lawmakers to read and review Section 51 (Effective Date of Act) of the Act which states in full: “When this Act shall have been approved by the President of the United States, such fact shall be made known by proclamation of the President of the Philippines and this Act shall take effect on the one hundred and twentieth day after the date of such proclamation: Provided, however, That the provisions of this Act creating the Bureau of Immigration and appropriating funds for its support and maintenance shall take effect on the date of the proclamation above-referred to, announcing the approval of this Act by the President of the United States. Are we still part of the United States? I thought we already gain our independence? Am I over-reacting or our lawmakers just failed to do their lessons. Our political leaders should realize the gravity of the situation in our maritime industry. They should do away with excessive politicking and start amending, revising and enacting laws that would benefit our nation as a whole, instead of spending too much time conducting investigation in “aid of legislation”; a practice perceived by many as a camouflage for political grandstanding. Unless we learn to extricate ourselves from the bondage of corruption, ignorance, lack of knowledge and awareness, our maritime industry will continue to regress, sink deeper into pit and join the ranks of a backward and non-progressing seafaring nation --- CAPT. VICTOR Y. ALVIOLA
Posted on: Sat, 18 Oct 2014 13:57:10 +0000
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