OLONGAPO City – U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) conducted an International Seaport Interdiction Training (ISIT) for 21 officers from Philippine agencies on seaport interdiction and law enforcement. 

The ISIT provided a combination of classroom and practical exercises. The classroom lectures focused on techniques to detect smuggled contrabands, identify weapons of mass destruction, interview suspicious traveling persons, detect fraudulent travel documents, inspect containers and stay safe in a seaport environment.

Practical exercises included visits to the Subic Bay International Terminal Corporation (SBITC) New Container Terminal (NCT) and the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) Naval Supplies Depot (NSD) where CBP trainers demonstrated interdiction techniques and the participants conducted container and vessel inspections.

Participating Philippine agencies included the Bureau of Customs, Bureau of Immigration, Philippine Coast Guard and the Philippine National Police. The CBP ISIT was funded the U.S. State Department-Export Control and Related Border Security Program (EXBS). This iteration of ISIT was held from April 22 to 26, 2019, in Subic, Olongapo City.