Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon: We should shape up.
INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Bureau of Customs (BOC) personnel are “not standing on high ground” to question the order of President Aquino and Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima orders to shape up, according to Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon.
The former Muntinlupa City legislator has posted on his Twitter account his disagreement with the 3,000-strong Bureau of Customs Employees Association for “questioning our leaders’ evaluation of the agency.”
“We should take it as a direct order to shape up,” he asserted.
According to Biazon, “we in the Bureau of Customs should accept the fact that reforms are in order.”
“My directive to BOC officers and employees: Accept the President’s State of the Nation Address (Sona) as a challenge to prove your worth as public servants… As I’ve always said from the very beginning of my term as commissioner, Customs reforms go beyond reshuffles and chopping off heads,” he added.
In his fourth Sona, the President lambasted the Department of Finance-attached agency for allowing smuggled items, weapons and even illegal drugs into the country, and for not properly taxing imported goods.
He 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 revenue slip through our borders instead of going to our public coffers.”
“Where do these people get the gall?” the President asked.
Wearing black armbands, BOC employees last week hit back at Aquino for making “sweeping generalizations” in his Sona in which he referred to agency personnel as corrupt and inefficient.
The 3,000-member Bureau of Customs Employees Association (Bocea) described the President’s pronouncements as “very disgraceful and humiliating.”
In a statement, Bocea president Rumulo Pagulayan said Aquino’s accusations also “demoralized all officers and employees of the BOC.” “They were in complete disregard of their rights to dignity and due process as provided for in the Constitution.”