The Bureau of Customs (BOC) was awarded with a certificate of compliance for Freedom of Information (FOI) requirements in relation to Fiscal Year (F.Y.) 2021 Performance Based Bonus (PBB) by the Honorable Jose Ruperto Martin M. Andanar, Secretary and FOI Champion of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO), on 09 March 2022.

The FOI enables Filipino citizens to request for information on government transactions and operations, provided that it shall not put privacy and matters of national security at risk.

Being part of the requirements, all concerned agencies were mandated to update their existing FOI manual thus, the BOC issued Customs Memorandum Order no. 06-2022 designating the Public Information and Assistance Division as the FOI Receiving Officer. As early as February 2021, the designated division had already submitted the compliance to the Project Management Office-FOI.

With this, the BOC was validated by the PCOO as compliant to the FOI program criteria and is eligible to the F.Y. 2021 PBB pursuant to Section 5 (b) of Memorandum Circular No. 2021-1, issued by the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Harmonization of National Government Performance Monitoring, Information, and Reporting Systems (Task Force Administrative Order 25, s. 2011).

Awarded for being fully-compliant in the years 2019, 2020, and 2021, the BOC continues its commitment to adhere to Executive Order (EO) No. 02 or the EO on FOI which aims to promote an open government by increasing the transparency of the executive branch and its agencies, strengthening the right to information as enshrined by the constitution.