Biazon shrugs off rumor Henares to replace him

Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon and Bureau of Internal Revenue chief Kim Henares INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon on Wednesday brushed aside rumors  that Bureau of Internal Revenue chief Kim Henares would replace him shortly, saying he would “continue to work until I receive my walking papers.”

Biazon, who had just returned from an official trip to Cebu City, told the Inquirer, “I will just focus on what I need to do and set rumors aside.”

Baizon offered to resign last July 22 right after President Benigno Aquino’s State of the Nation Address in which the Chief Executibve lambasted the Bureau of Customs, among other agencies, for alleged incompetence and corruption. But the President responded to Biazon, also in a text message confirmed by the Palace, that his confidence in Biazon “remains the same.”

In an earlier text message to the Inquirer, Biazon said he had “not pinpointed who’s behind the latest smear campaign” but had “several suspects.”

“Different groups are acting. There are those who would rock the boat to undermine my authority and influence, some rocking the boat hoping to be appeased and for those interested in my post, they could take advantage of the crisis,” he said.

These people “don’t have the interest of the bureau and the administration in mind. Their actions only seek to perpetuate the ills of the bureau,” he said.

On Wednesday, Biazon assured the public the bureau would fully cooperate with the Senate in its planned inquiry into the “padrino” (patron or godfather) system in Customs where some well-connected people have allegedly amassed fortunes in connivance with smugglers.

On Monday, Senator Francis Escudero filed a resolution directing the Senate finance committee, which he chairs, as well as the Blue Ribbon and ways and means committees to investigate the long rumored patronage system in the bureau.

The senator said charges made by Biazon and Deputy Commissioner Danilo Lim that influential personalities had been interfering in the agency’s business were already “loud whispers that cannot and should not be ignored anymore.”

In a blog on the “padrino” system in the agency, Biazon said sometime in March he was “surprised at the number of employees and officials in the bureau who are said to have their own political backers.”