Soldiers told: Open suspect shipments

President Duterte has ordered the military contingent to be assigned to the Bureau of Customs to forcibly open all shipments suspected of containing illegal drugs and other contrabands.

In a speech in Cagayan de Oro City on Wednesday night, the President said his instructions were for the soldiers to “do it randomly” or “forcibly open everything.”

“They will really do it. You know, that’s why I like military men,” he said.

President Duterte said he was planning to purchase more X-ray machines to help in the detection of smuggled narcotics and other contrabands at the corruption-ridden agency.

P11-B ‘shabu’ smuggling

Earlier, he ordered the Armed Forces of the Philippines to take over the operations of the agency following the P11-billion shabu smuggling controversy that hounded it.

Malacañang, however, said a “status quo” prevailed at the agency pending the issuance by the President of a formal order.

While stressing the integrity of his former appointees, former Custom Commissioners Nicanor Faeldon and Isidro Lapeña, the President said the shabu shipment might have slipped past the ports due to the large volume of shipments that needed to be examined every day.

The President justified the military takeover at customs, with retired general Rey Leonardo Guerrero as the new commissioner.

“I will not sit as President if you make me very helpless. They’re saying, the move to take over the Bureau of Customs is militarization of the government bureaucracy. Correct!” he said.

Ex-military officers

“Some are saying [that] not all of us are corrupt. That’s right. But how come the ‘shabu’ (crystal meth) shipment slipped through?” he asked.

President Duterte said he had appointed former military officers to his Cabinet because they were the ones who delivered.

“I do not have anything against the bureaucracy, but the bureaucracy [takes a long time to deliver]. It will take you forever [to implement projects] because they’re fond of debating. In the [middle] of a disaster—fire, flooding, they’re not there because they’re drinking,” he said.

But he said the military also served as “utility boys,” who, when ordered to dig the road, would really do it.

“In Boracay, if not for military men [Interior Secretary Eduardo] Año and [Environment Secretary Roy] Cimatu, would Boracay be cleaned up?

“In Marawi, if not for [Housing Secretary Eduardo] Del Rosario, a military man from Davao, would [the rehabilitation] be that fast? Would the money still be there?” he said.