‘Demoralized’ customs men wear black armbands
Wearing black armbands was the response of a number of Bureau of Customs (BOC) employees to what they call “sweeping generalizations” made by President Benigno Aquino III in his recent State of the Nation Address in which he referred to customs personnel as corrupt and inefficient.
In a news conference at the BOC headquarters in Manila’s South Harbor, some 20 members of Bureau of Customs Employees Association (Bocea) wore the armbands to express their disappointment over the President’s remarks and to oppose alleged government plans to privatize the agency.
In a statement, Romulo Pagulayan, head of the 3,000-member Bocea, described the President’s pronouncements as “very disgraceful and humiliating.”
Due process disregarded
Mr. Aquino’s accusations also “demoralized all officers and employees of the BOC,” Pagulayan said. “(They were) in complete disregard of their rights to dignity and due process as provided for in the Constitution.”
The Bocea president said the Department of Finance-attached agency “cannot be totally blamed for not meeting its revenue collection targets,”
Factors like globalization, trade liberalization, a sluggish international trade and a strong peso should be faulted for the problem, he said.
Lack of personnel
BOC personnel “should not be faulted for the perceived smuggling problem in the bureau,” which the Bocea head claimed was “beyond the control of the BOC’s 17 collection districts.”
“At present, the total personnel complement of the bureau is just 3,000 distributed in 17 districts nationwide compared to 7,000 in 1980…. With this lack of personnel, the bureau cannot cover and effectively carry out its mandate,” Pagulayan.
He added that “despite this handicap, the BOC has proven its capability in apprehending smuggled goods.”
In his Sona, Mr. Aquino lambasted the BOC for allowing smuggled items, weapons and even illegal drugs into the country, and for not properly taxing imported goods.
The President said: “Instead of collecting the proper taxes and preventing contraband from entering the country, they are heedlessly permitting the smuggling of goods, even drugs, arms and other items of similar nature into our territory. The Department of Finance estimates that more than P200 billion in revenues slip through our borders instead of going to our public coffers… Where do these people get the gall?”
He also said he was dismayed with the performance of the agency and its personnel.
‘Padrino’ system
Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon has complained that efforts to curb shenanigans in the agency have been stymied by people entrenched in the BOC padrino (patron) system.
Biazon and his deputy commissioner for intelligence, Danilo Lim, were quoted as saying that backers of corrupt BOC officials include senators, congressmen and relatives of high government officials.
“There will be no more sacred cows at the Bureau of Customs,” Biazon said on Thursday.
He said the agency’s “antismuggling drive, just like before, would be aggressive and wide-ranging.”
“However, this time, with President Aquino’s call to clean the bureau of corrupt officials no matter who their protectors are, there will be no more sacred cows at the BOC,” Biazon said.
He said “all those caught doing illicit trade in the bureau will be prosecuted, in accordance with law.”
“[I]f, for so many reasons, we encountered setbacks in our antismuggling campaign before despite our all-out drive against smuggling, we don’t expect this to happen now after the President’s resounding call for reforms in the Bureau of Customs in his fourth State of the Nation Address,” Biazon said.
Smuggled rice
He made the remarks upon his return from an official trip to Cebu City, where he inspected 312 container vans of smuggled Vietnamese rice at the Port of Cebu.
The shipment, which is part of more than 1,160 container vans of illegally imported rice seized by the BOC in late April, is scheduled for auction next week.
“The government expects to raise at least P245 million in revenue from the Aug. 7 auction of the 312 container vans of smuggled rice,” Biazon said.
The agency earlier raised P14.5 million when it auctioned off 50 container vans from the same shipment of smuggled rice.
Mother lode
Lim earlier called the shipment the agency’s “biggest haul of smuggled rice.”
“We hit the mother lode of rice smuggling,” he told reporters as he led the formal seizure of the illegal rice shipment, said to be worth over P1.2 billion.
Deputy Customs Commissioner Danilo Lim pointed out the smuggled rice was bigger in volume and value than the haul confiscated last year at the Subic Bay Freeport in Zambales.
The Cebu rice shipment was misdeclared as stone and granite slabs and cooling insulators, among other items. The container vans arrived on separate occasions between March 22 and April 13.
The BOC named the consignees of the illegally imported rice as JJM Global Trading, JM-ARS Trading, Neon Gateway Trading, Custans Enterprises, Melma Enterprises, NMW Enterprises, Ocean Park Enterprises, and MMSM Trading.
Other smuggled items
In Cebu, Biazon also inspected more than P10 million worth of smuggled items from China, Japan and Australia, including three used Mitsubishi Colt vehicles, a Mazada Elf truck, seven motorcycles and five used speedboats.
He said “the latest seizure of smuggled goods was the result of the bureau’s enhanced antismuggling and anticorruption campaign.”
He said it was “in response to the President’s rebuke on the extent of corruption in the agency.”
