The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and its partnered agencies are advocating for the establishment of a unified accreditation system for air and sea freight forwarders, known as Harmonized Online Freight Forwarding Accreditation (HOFFA).
DTI Undersecretary Mary Jean Pacheco mentioned that 90% of the system has already been completed, with the remaining 10% focused on tasks like data migration and aligning reports.
This initiative is part of the DTI proposed Joint Memorandum Circular (JMC) with the Dept. of Transportation (DOTr), which aims to address the separate and redundant accreditation processes for sea and air freight forwarders. Currently, sea freight forwarders are accredited by DTI Fair Trade Enforcement Bureau (FTEB), while air freight forwarders are accredited by the DOTR Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB).
To streamline the accreditation process, a Memorandum of Agreement was signed between DTI and DOTr in December 2022 to harmonize accreditation for sea and air freight. PKC