Customs says downtime in system due to technical malfunction

The Bureau of Customs (BOC) on Sunday clarified that the downtime in its E2M (electronic-to-mobile) system last week was caused by a technical malfunction.

"We would like to make it clear that the downtime was caused by a technical malfunction of the Government Network (GovNet) which is being used by BOC to connect to its Cloud Servers," BOC Deputy Commissioner Gerado Gambala said in an emailed statement.

The downtime in the E2M system started 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, June 17, and lasted until 8:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 18.

"This line is being operated and maintained by DICT (Department of Information and Communications Technology), thus BOC IT personnel had to wait for the issue to be resolved," Gambala said.

"Although the E2M System and Servers were operational, the loss of network connectivity meant that no BOC transactions could be submitted to the system," he added.

Gambala also noted that the downtime in the E2M system was an isolated case, and "totally unrelated" to the recent implementation of the electronic submission of air manifest, requiring stakeholders to submit all air cargo manifests electronically.

"The downtime caused delays in air-manifest submission but this was not the main cause of customs clearance delays because all air-manifest affected by the downtime were being acted upon and directly validated," he said. —Jon Viktor D. Cabuenas/ALG, GMA News