The Bureau of Customs is formulating new measures to prevent the repeat of an incident involving an examiner assigned to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport who opened diplomatic pouches consigned to the Japanese Embassy.
The office of Naia-Customs Collector Edgar Macabeo conducted a meeting and orientation to inform all examiners and other Customs personnel following the incident.
Customs Commissioner Alberto Lina said examiner Pompeo Manalo and his superior Emily Balatbat, chief of the Naia Customs Composite Unit at the Pair Cargo, were already reassigned pending investigation on the incident.
“We are mandating all cargo terminals that accept shipments to install X-ray machines,” Lina said.
Balatbat initially reprimanded Manalo for conducting a physical examination on the diplomatic shipment, which reportedly contained wine and other items for the five-state visit of Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko.
The incident also prompted Balatbat to send a letter of apology to the Japanese Embassy.
In her letter, she said, “It was an unfitting action on his part. I myself, when I learned about it, felt we owe you our sincerest apology.”
Balatbat also told the Japanese Embassy that they “demanded a written explanation from Manalo why he opened the diplomatic shipment.”
“Please be assured that this be the first and the last,” she added.
Macabeo, for his part, said it was the first time the violation occurred and stressed that most examiners are aware that all “diplomatic pouches that arrives at the airport has immunity and cannot be examined by anyone without authorization from the commissioner and from the district collector.” He said the incident happened last Dec. 3 at the Pair Cargo Customs Bonded Warehouse in Pasay City, day after the diplomatic pouch was released. The cargo arrived Nov. 30.
Contrary to Manalo’s claim that the opening of the pouch was an “honest mistake,” diplomatic sources said there was a representative of the Japanese Embassy who was at the Customs office and presented pertinent documents to prove that the cargo was a diplomatic pouch.
The Philippines is a signatory to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which stated that “a diplomatic pouch is any properly labeled package or container of any size and weight that is used to transport materials for the use of embassies and offices of international organizations, among others.”
In accordance with Article 27.3 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, properly designated diplomatic pouches “shall not be opened or detained.”