MANILA, Philippines -- The Supreme Court has ordered the Department of Finance and two government tax agencies to comment on the petition seeking to declare as unconstitutional the law eyeing to weed out underperforming revenue officials.

In a one-page resolution, the high court gave Finance Secretary Margarito Teves, Bureau of Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales, and Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Lilian Hefti 10 days to answer the allegation that Republic Act 9335 or the Attrition Act of 2005 violated the Constitution.

At the same time, the high tribunal also gave petitioners, the Bureau of Customs Employees Association (BOCEA), to complete within five days the requirements for filing a petition.

"The Court resolved, without giving due course to the petition to direct the petitioner to comply within five days from notice hereof, with the required competent evidence of identity in the Verification and the Affidavit of Service pursuant to Section 12 (a), Rule II of the 2004 Rules on Notarial Practice, as amended, considering that the respective affiants of the Verification and the Affidavit of Service presented only their Community Tax Certificate before the Notary Public," the high court said.

RA No. 9335 is "An Act to Improve the Revenue Collection Performance of the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Bureau of Customs Through the Creation of a Rewards and Incentives Fund and of a Revenue Performance Evaluation Board and for Other Purposes."

The customs workers are challenging the validity of the Attrition Law which provides for the summary dismissal from service of officials or employees of the BoC and the BIR if they do not collect their respective quotas, a matter contrary to the requirements of due process.

The law, the employees said, was "causing and will cause grave injustice and irreparable violation of the rights of the petitioner members of BOCEA who are in danger of losing their jobs without due process of law despite their respective lengths of service to the government."

The workers claim the law ?presumes the corruption of the officers and employees within the BIR and BoC as the root cause of the dearth in collection for the national coffers. It turns a blind eye to the fact that the very policies of the government itself that reduced tariff rates to virtually nil and the giving of tax breaks to big businesses are the insuperable barriers that hinder these two agencies from attaining their revenue targets.?

The workers are also challenging the validity of the provisions which delegates discretion to the Revenue Performance Evaluation Board without sufficient safeguards against abuse.