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Logistics Systems: A Need for Better Supply

Nobody can tell what the future’s fate will be. Just like everybody else, we did not see and expect
this pandemic coming into our lives that really changed the world’s reality. For instances like this,
business is the most prior sector severely hit in the economic areas, not just food and beverages
restaurants but even other industries especially who involve in imports and exports transactions. Everyone
experience economic and financial loss; trying to earn money is like putting your life in danger. In this
time of crisis, everything is a matter of risk, assurance of success is undeterminable thus greater
possibility of losses are expected. If you want to take the risk, it is better to think a million times every
step you shall make; one wrong decision can cause a big impact in the near future. These threats will
continue, with all the tragedy and loss, unless we get out our act together.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to destroy the stability of all the sectors of the society,
national governments across the globe had no choice but to implement unprecedented measures, taking
into considerations all the national and international authorities, to be subjected into lockdowns and
control the restriction movements of the population to check and manage the possible spread of threats
brought by the outbreak. With no doubt, this have affected the global trade as well as the supply chain,
worse even almost experienced a standstill.

It was broadcasted in different news that rather than public and landform transportations,
international flights were also being restricted or stopped, which has led to a rapid decrease of the
transactions or simply the movement of goods. The shipping ports have greatly been affected as different
cargo and vessels were being placed first under quarantine and protocols for several days up to weeks
before being authorized thus adds another factor to slow down processes. Shipping containers were
delayed and stuck on transit at their desired state borders. What will now happen to our country which is
being called to be the crewing capital of the world, if shipping ports will be pushed to close and shut
down?

In last year’s report, during the first quarter of pandemic, there is about 40 000 vans which are
being delayed in the Manila port, 30 000 of it were said to be uncleared. According to the vice president
of the Confederation of Truckers of the Philippines, the occurrence of lockdowns in the different regions
especially in Luzon areas including Manila, were the reason for these uncleared transactions since the
documents that will validate its clearance are released abroad thus sums up the totality of the delayed and
uncleared vans. Different ports ask the Bureau of Customs (BoC) to allow the transactions of the so-
called green lanes which will speed up shipping but safety measure in this process is vulnerable. As
response to this, BoC have put into prioritize the shipping of medical supplies and equipment and
personal protective equipment as the only exemption while other transactions will still be subjected into
every process of clearance and protocol measurements.

Despite the ongoing pandemic, BoC have also found 47 out of the 55 audited cargoes have
subjected to different violations in terms of the Customs regulations. It is indeed proof that anomalies are
still present and undeniable even we are already facing a worldwide outbreak. Therefore, BoC were
pushed to complete the annual audit and report of the previous year to validate its eligibility and sectors
of vulnerabilities. With this surge to finish the annual audit, Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III,
open up the importance of updating the customs processes into the room of focal discussions. It was
proposed that with the help of modernization brough by information and communication technology,
would generate the enhancement and development of the trade’s shipping and facilitations as well as to
help to revive the losses experiences by the economy sector. This project that said to be solution in some
of the BoC processes problems and weaknesses will be supported by the World Bank by providing the
84.5 percent of the total cost which amounts for USD82 million. With this large amount of value, we
should hope for the success of the project and not just to be victim of the corruptions of the department as
we all know that BoC are still being tempered for several anomalies.

From the raw materials and different manufactured products, all experienced delay and worse
some are unable to reach the location of their ports. Also, the decrease of the demand of different goods
were observed as the most traded necessities of most of the countries counter more on pharmaceutical and
medical supplies. These problems yield for underloaded operations in the shipping lines thus disrupting
the expected balance in the revenue and costs of operations. The occurrence of manpower from the
warehouses to the government authorities up to the shipping terminals and ports were in a severe shortage
that increases the factors in supplying the smooth flow of the chain movement.

With all the changes brought by the new normal, changes are also imminent in all other
stakeholders of the ports from the importers to exporters who experience difficulties in documents and
legal transactions as customs broker are also experiencing various changes from the safety protocol
measurements being implemented. More than half of cargoes and airlines were closed or just 10 percent
of the shipping ports are only currently working, thus bankruptcy and massive loss in both internal and
external relations are found to be experienced by different logistic companies. Overall, we could state that
the flow of goods or simply the logistic systems of our nation and even the world was greatly affected
thus supply chain are being subjected with no choice to adapt the changes and accountable protocol
measurements.

In conclusion, I want to stress out the possible solution in the logistic system especially in terms
of the control and management of the supply chain. First, set up command centers that will be responsible
in the improvement of communications. Having one central management which have the authority to
access all information, documents and transactions will help to suppress the threats accompanied by the
dynamic pandemic situation that we have. Also, with the use of information technology, creating different
resilient supply webs will prevents the greater risk of delays and uncleared transactions. We also need to
measure the risks of the supplies and not only focus on how to speed up shipping processes. Together, the
command centers and the supply risks webs, we might not totally prevent all the disruptions, but this is a
great foundation to continue our logistic system with strong invulnerability.

References:

Lawton, G. (2020). 7 Supply Chain management best Practices in a COVID-19 World. TechTarget.
Retrieved from https://searcherp.techtarget.com/feature/7-supply-chain-management-best-practices-in-a-
COVID-19-world

Villanueva, J. (2021). BOC Modernization. Philippine News Agency. Retrieved from

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1134975