The revenue collection of the Bureau of Customs in the first five months of 2022 is higher compared to the same period in 2019.

"If we were going to compare, our target now is much higher and we were able to achieve it. Our collection for the last five months of 2022 is significantly much higher than the first five months collection in 2019," Deputy Customs Commissioner Vincent Philip Maronilla said during the "Laging Handa" public briefing on Friday.

"It means the trading activity between the Philippines and other trading partners are slowly going back and the economy will be revitalized," he added.

Maronilla said the BOC recorded more than 50 billion pesos surplus from January to May.

"For the month of May, more than 11 billion pesos surplus were recorded in our collection target... So even if the BOC will not collect for a month, we are still on the target," he said.

"The target of BOC this 2022 is more than 700 billion pesos and the internal target of BOC is to surpass this. If our surplus is already P50 billion we can still dream to reach at least P800 billion for this year, including the surplus," he added.

Maronilla also expressed confidence that the high revenue collection of the BOC will continue until the next administration.

"We are confident that this (high revenue collection) will continue even in the next administration, looking, of course, at the lineup in the economic team. And looking at the programs that we’ve already established, we think, in terms of collection and efforts and meeting the collection target and having a significant surplus in the collection target, it will not become a challenge for the Bureau of Customs and we will be able to achieve it this year," he said. Robina Asido/DMS