‘Culture of corruption continues at Customs’

By: Jerry E. Esplanada - 11 years ago

New Customs Commissioner John Phillip Sevilla and former Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon file photos

“Commissioners come and go, but the (culture of corruption) in the Bureau of Customs (BOC) continues.”

That’s a quote from former Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon and it is the common answer of old-timers in the bureau to questions from the Inquirer about the identities of the traders known among insiders in the agency as “Big Mama,” “Ma’am T” and “Mr. T.”

Under-the-table deals among the three traders and corrupt examiners, appraisers and other frontline personnel at the BOC are the cause of the bureau’s failure to meet its revenue collection goals, a newly appointed official of the agency told the Inquirer over the weekend.

The official did not name the three traders whose undervalued or misdeclared imports cost the government millions if not billions of pesos in lost revenue.

The official, however, said the three traders were mentioned in the study titled “Anatomy of Corruption” that he was doing as part of a reform program for the bureau.

“It’s a work in progress,” he said. “I’ve been working on it for quite some time.”

“The traders referred to in the study have been engaged in the import business for decades. Thus, it is no surprise that they have established contacts at the BOC,” the official said.

The old-timers said some traders had been “ruling” the BOC for decades.

They, however, could not say who among the traders were “Big Mama,” “Ma’am T” and “Mr. T.”

But they insisted that “not all customs officials and employees are corrupt and in cahoots with these importers.”

The old-timers are among the bureau personnel who resent President Benigno Aquino III’s view of BOC officials and employees as corrupt.

In his State of the Nation Address in July, the President mentioned the bureau and spoke as if all of its personnel were corrupt, and warned them to shape up or ship out.

Reorganization

Customs employees protested their being singled out for corruption, but the government ignored their protestations and went ahead with a reorganization that saw personnel being transferred to the bureau’s mother organization, the Department of Finance, where they had no influence and could do no damage to the government.

But those employees have challenged their reassignment in the Court of Appeals, halting their transfer and delaying reforms in the bureau.

Whether they are among those with dealings with “Big Mama,” “Ma’am T” and “Mr. T” is unclear, but the Inquirer’s source indicated that reforms introduced by Biazon had failed to unseat all corrupt officials in the bureau.

One official, the source said, interceded on behalf of one of the traders, resulting in millions of pesos in revenue losses for the government.

“Instead of paying P200,000-plus per container for their imported plastic manufacturing materials, the trader paid only a little over P130,000 per container, or customs revenue losses of about P70,000 per container,” the source said.

The source, who is the same newly appointed official at the bureau, identified the official but asked this reporter not to disclose the name.

“Big Mama,” “Ma’am T” and “Mr. T” cannot be arrested and sued because their papers appear to be in order, the source said.

Reform program

New Customs Commissioner John Phillip Sevilla, a former finance undersecretary, has yet to comment on the new official’s disclosure.

Earlier, Sevilla vowed to enforce the finance department’s reform program at the BOC.

The Inquirer source said some traders had been benefiting from undervaluation and misdeclaration of their imports, but not a single case had been filed against them.

“Why, because their import papers appeared to be in order. Thanks to some corrupt customs personnel who are in cahoots with them, letting them undervalue their imported goods so they can pay lower duties and taxes,” the official said.

But according to a district collector transferred to the newly created Customs Policy Research Office at the finance department, some of those traders are in the customs bureau’s “order of battle,” meaning they are being watched and their contacts in the bureau being traced.

The bureau’s intelligence division, which drew up the order of battle during Biazon’s term, has not disclosed the watch list, which reportedly include the names of smugglers.