Zambales rep finds something to praise about Aquino

DAVAO City, Philippines—Zambales Representative Mitos Magsaysay is more known for her scathing criticisms of President Aquino. But in a rare show of approval, Magsaysay on Monday said the President made an “excellent choice” when he appointed former Muntinlupa Rep. Ruffy Biazon to the Bureau of Customs (BoC).

Magsaysay, a staunch ally of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, said in a statement sent to the Inquirer that Biazon “is an excellent choice to head the bureau because he is known as a man with impeccable work ethic and integrity, as proven by his performance in his three terms in the Lower House.”

“The bureau needs someone like Ruffy because he is a no-nonsense type of government official,” she said.

Magsaysay described Biazon, who lost in the 2010 senatorial race under the Liberal Party, as “competent.”

“He has never been caught up in any anomaly or intrigue in his years as a public servant,” she said.

Magsaysay said she believes that Biazon “will provide a refreshing change to the bureau, which has been tagged as among the most corrupt in the country, and institute reforms to turn things around.”

But she admitted that reforming the BoC was not an easy task.

She urged Biazon to start the reforms by conducting a massive restructuring of the BoC to ensure that those who have been operating clandestinely or conniving with smugglers “will no longer have the clout or the power to facilitate illegal transactions.”

“The way I see it is  there are a lot of under-the-table deals and anomalies in the bureau such as the missing 2,000 containers of diverted goods from the Port of Manila because officials and even the rank-and-file members of the organization, who have been allowing these abuses to happen, have been sitting too long in their posts,” she said.

Magsaysay said Biazon should also put a stop to the rampant smuggling in the country’s ports “in order to plug revenue leakages and improve collections.”