It’s official: Biazon new customs chief

President Benigno Aquino III has appointed former Muntinlupa Rep. Ruffy Biazon as commissioner of the Bureau of Customs and former Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim as the bureau’s deputy commissioner for intelligence, Malacañang announced on Wednesday.

Biazon replaces Angelito Alvarez, whose sacking was announced to reporters by Mr. Aquino late last month. The President had expressed unhappiness at Alvarez’s failure to go after smugglers, highlighted by the disappearance of several thousand container vans under his watch.

Both Biazon and Lim were losing candidates on the President’s Liberal Party senatorial slate in 2010.

Palace deputy spokesperson Abigail Valte said Mr. Aquino believed that Biazon could implement much-needed reforms in the customs bureau and meet its revenue targets.

Valte dismissed suggestions in a news briefing that the appointments were a political accommodation, pointing out that Biazon’s “competence cannot be questioned especially in the field of public service.”

Excellent choice

Alvarez said he personally tendered his formal resignation Wednesday. It takes effect Friday.

“I expressed heartfelt appreciation to the President for giving me the opportunity to serve the nation,” he said in a statement. He also expressed gratitude to Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima for his support.

“I have done myself and my family proud. I am confident that, even more so in time, the nation will reap and realize the good fruits of my toil,” he said. He offered to assist in the transition.

Alvarez said that Biazon was “an excellent choice” to head the bureau. He said that Biazon’s partnership with Lim “will go a long way in sustaining the momentum we have built towards the transformation of the Bureau of Customs into an efficient, ethical and professional organization.”

Reluctant soldier

Born March 20, 1969, Biazon is the youngest son of Rep. Rodolfo Biazon, a former senator and former chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. The younger Biazon served as Muntinlupa representative from 2001 to 2010. He holds a degree in medical technology from the University of Sto. Tomas.

Biazon entered the government service when he was appointed youth representative of the Video Regulatory Board by then President Corazon Aquino in 1991. He led the successful senatorial campaign of his father in 1992. At the age of 23, Biazon became his father’s chief of staff.

Lim said he was reluctant to take the job because of the customs bureau’s reputation for corruption. “But like a good soldier, I had to follow the order of the President,” said Lim, who will be replacing acting Deputy Commissioner Filomeno Vicencio Jr.

No place for corruption

Lim, a former Army Scout Rangers commander, was scheduled to take his oath this morning in Malacañang and then hold a press conference to unveil his plans “to curb widespread corruption in the bureau,” said an advisory from his group.

“The retired brigadier general who was unjustly imprisoned for leading a military uprising against the Arroyo administration said he would use his new mandate to help the incumbent government in effective revenue generation by preventing and suppressing smuggling and other forms of corruption inside the bureau,” the advisory said.

“The former rebel general said corruption has no place in President Aquino’s tuwid na daan (straight path),” it added.

Answerable to God

Besides attempting to bring down the Arroyo administration 2007, Lim also figured in the 1989 coup attempt against the first Aquino administration. Biazon’s father helped put down the uprising.

In a statement posted on his personal website, Biazon said he would be “answerable to God and accountable to the people.”

“This is a make or break assignment for me, with a challenge much greater than others I have faced before,” Biazon said.

“Rest assured that in the performance of my duty, I shall be answerable to God and accountable to the people,” he added.

Biazon said that in the next several days, the particular initiatives of reform that he will undertake will be presented.

He said this would cover the bureau’s systems and procedures, organizational structure, personnel morale and even the agency’s image.

He ended his statement with a verse from the Gospel of Mark, “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?”