By Joel E. Zurbano

Call it carrot and stick, the Customs bureau has earned brownie points when President Arroyo was visibly pleased over the fast processing of importation documents at the Port of Manila.

Around May last year, Mrs. Arroyo stormed the office of Commissioner Napoleon Morales, castigating him for the slow filing of charges against suspected smugglers of rice and flour.

Yesterday morning, she was all smiles at the Formal Entry Division office at the Port of Manila, as she chatted with brokers who told her that the paper chase has been cut down to two hours or less.

?I can make it within 30 minutes. Thanks to you, Madam,? said broker Marittes Ortega.

?May time na ako para mag-makeup,? another broker, Anielyn Carreon, told an amused Mrs. Arroyo.

She commended Morales and Manila District Collector Horacio Suansing Jr. for the full compliance of Citizens? Charter and for the quality of public service to brokers, importers and authorized representatives transacting with the agency.

?The Bureau of Customs was the first government agency to comply with this. So, I congratulate Boy Morales and Collector Suansing for a job well done,? she said.

A broker for more than 15 years, Paul Almin, a resident of Tondo, said processing used to stretch three to five days.

?Now, the filing of BC Form 236 or [import entry and internal revenue declaration] can be done in five minutes,? he said.

Morales said the agency has been tweaking the streamlining of transactions under the new directives.

?Even before this Citizens? Charter, we have the service charter under the Integrity Action Plan. But this new charter is improved and more comprehensive for our stakeholders, to show that they may demand the level of service we assure them in the charter. This is our way of doing our part to improve the frontline service delivery in the bureau.?

He said the bureau was following the Anti-Red Tape Act of 2007, which enjoined agencies ?to undertake on a continuing basis programs to promote customer satisfaction and improve service delivery.?

The law limited the number of signatures of officials or employees directly supervising the evaluation, approval or disapproval of the frontline services to a maximum of five.

It also provided that all applications for services should be acted upon within five and 10 working days for simple and complex transactions, respectively.