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The Bureau of Customs is streamlining its Accounts Management Office processes, collapsing multiple overlapping evaluation layers into a single assessment for importer accreditation and customs broker registration applications
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BOC will shift the compliance burden from applicants to the bureau itself, requiring only an undertaking from importers and brokers at renewal that their information remains unchanged, with BOC cross-checking details with law enforcement agencies
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After rationalizing AMO’s processes, the office will be transferred to what BOC describes as the office “where it truly belongs” — most likely the Assessment and Operations Coordinating Group — under a revamped accreditation system designed to be significantly less burdensome for trade stakeholders
The Bureau of Customs (BOC) is overhauling the processes of its Accounts Management Office (AMO) as part of its broader push to improve the ease of doing business and strengthen trade facilitation.
BOC Assistant Commissioner Atty. Vincent Philip Maronilla, head of the Post Clearance Audit Group (PCAG) to which AMO was recently transferred, said a key problem identified in the review was the sheer number of overlapping evaluation layers an application passes through before approval.
Under the existing system, a single application for importer accreditation or customs broker registration undergoes a pre-evaluation, an evaluation by an evaluator, a review by a supervising evaluator, another assessment by the AMO chief, and finally a pass through the Intelligence Group — the office that previously had supervision over AMO before it was transferred to PCAG in early June.
“That’s what we’re trying to streamline now at the Bureau of Customs,” Maronilla said during the 2nd Stakeholders’ Summit of the United Portusers Confederation of the Philippines. He has since issued a memorandum to AMO directing that only one evaluation be conducted for the entire application process.
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Beyond eliminating redundant steps, BOC is also fundamentally rethinking how renewals work. Under the revised procedures, full documentary requirements will be required only for the initial application. For renewal, importers and customs brokers will simply need to submit an undertaking certifying that no changes have occurred in the information they previously provided.
Maronilla said BOC will cross-reference the names of incorporators and company information with law enforcement agencies, which will provide the bureau with feedback on any discrepancies. “We’re going to shift the work to us instead of on you,” Maronilla said. “That is the goal of Commissioner [Ariel Nepomuceno] — that’s why he transferred the AMO and is changing the whole system.”
As an interim measure during the transition, BOC will also assign a dedicated point person for each chamber of commerce to handle AMO-related concerns “until we’re able to cleanse the entire process,” Maronilla added.
Once AMO’s processes have been fully rationalized, Maronilla said the office will be transferred to the “office where it truly belongs” — which he indicated would most likely be the Assessment and Operations Coordinating Group. “But that would be a new AMO, a new accreditation process — one that is not only less burdensome, if not burdensome at all, to our stakeholders, but would assist them in their trade facilitation,” he said.
The transfer of AMO to PCAG is governed by Customs Memorandum Order No. 10-2026, which placed AMO under the direct supervision and control of PCAG’s Trade Information and Risk Analysis Office (TIRAO) — a unit whose functions include reviewing trade data to determine compliance markers, developing audit programs, and recommending priority audit candidates.
BOC recently designated Atty. Christopher Dy Buco as acting AMO chief, succeeding Atty. Jonathan Mengullo, who has been reassigned as Collection Division chief at the BOC-Manila International Container Port.
Prior to its move to PCAG, AMO had been transferred across several BOC groups and offices multiple times, until it was returned to the Intelligence Group in 2017. — Roumina Pablo
