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The Department of Trade and Industry-Fair Trade Group is further extending to October 31, 2025 the deadline for compliance to paid-up capital and training requirements under the new rules for sea freight forwarding
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The extension is in response to the industry’s request
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A new memo will soon be issued for the extension
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Under the new guidelines, group attendance of multiple key officers in the training programs relevant to their role and responsibilities is allowed
The Department of Trade and Industry-Fair Trade Group (DTI-FTG) is further extending to October 31, 2025 the deadline for compliance to paid-up capital and training requirements under the new rules for sea freight forwarding.
The extension is in response to the industry’s request, DTI assistant secretary and FTG supervising head Atty. Agaton Teodoro Uvero said in a letter dated May 29 addressed to Philippine Multimodal Transport and Logistics Association, Inc. (PMTLAI) president Erich Lingad. PMTLAI earlier sent in recommendations related to the implementation of DTI Department Administrative Order (DAO) No. 24-09, which provides the new rules on sea freight forwarding.
Uvero said FTG will soon issue an amendment to Memorandum Circular (MC) No. 25-02 for the October extension.
The original deadlines were January 1, 2025 for the paid-up capital requirement and March 9, 2025 for the training requirement. FTG last February through MC No. 25-02 extended the deadlines to June 30, 2025.
PMTLAI earlier requested to further extend the deadlines to December 31, 2025.
Uvero noted, however, that since the briefing of DAO 24-09 in December 2024, “a number of forwarders have already started with their compliance and a lot of forwarders are already compliant both with the capital and training requirements at present.”
DAO No. 24-09 requires key operating officers, who may be the owner, president, chief operating officer, general manager, or operations manager, to have relevant trainings of at least 60 hours for non-vessel operating common carriers (NVOCCs) and international freight forwarders (IFFs) and a minimum of 40 hours for domestic freight forwarders (DFF).
The training requirement must be conducted by the national association, such as PMTLAI, or by training entities accredited by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority or the Professional Regulation Commission.
On PMTLAI’s proposal to recognize the group attendance of multiple key officers in training programs relevant to their role and responsibilities, Uvero said this is allowed, provided the training programs attended cover topics pertinent to qualifications of key operating officers provided under DAO No. 24-09.
These topics include inventory management, international commercial terms, freight documentation, supply chain and logistics management, and multimodal transport operations.
In addition, he said since freight forwarding operations are regulated by other agencies, the training programs will include those related to port operations, import regulation, customs compliance, customs rules on freight forwarding, and other related topics related to the movement and handling of goods locally and overseas.
To maximize the number of training hours and the number of key operating officers attending training, Uvero said a particular training course will only be counted once regardless of the number of attendees from a company.
He noted, however, that training of an officer representing more than one company may be considered for all of his/her other companies, provided all the company names are indicated in the training certificate.
DAO-24-09, which was approved and signed on October 29, 2024, amends the almost 20-year-old Administrative Order (AO) No. 06-2005 issued by the defunct Philippine Shippers’ Bureau.
The new order, among others, increased the paid-up capital/equity requirement for sea freight forwarders.
The minimum paid-up capital will depend on any of these three forwarder categories:
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NVOCC, P5 million
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IFF, P3 million
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DFF, P1 million
The requirement compares with the previous P4 million mandated for an NVOCC, P2 million for an IFF, and P250,000 for a DFF.
The DAO applies to all sea freight forwarders, namely, NVOCC, cargo consolidator (CC), IFF, breakbulk cargo agent or cargo consolidator agent, and DFF. All are required to first secure a DTI accreditation certificate before they can legally engage in their function and/or operations.
Companies applying for more than one category will have to comply with the paid-up capital/equity requirement for the higher/highest category applied for.
The new rules also place the validity of the Certificate of Accreditation at five years from two years.
An accredited firm may apply for additional category, with the validity period co-terminus with the first accredited category/ies.
The DAO also no longer requires firms to apply for a separate accreditation for their branch offices so long as they provide DTI a list of their branches.
Sea freight forwarders, unlike other transport services regulated by agencies under the Department of Transportation, are accredited by DTI, previously through PSB. When PSB was dissolved in 2014 under DTI’s rationalization plan, its regulatory powers and functions were transferred to the Fair Trade Enforcement Bureau.
The DAO comes after several consultations over the years were held for proposed new rules on sea freight forwarding. – Roumina Pablo
