On a scale of 1 to 10—with 10 being the worst—the corruption problem at the Bureau of Customs (BOC) got a score of 7 from Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence Jessie Dellosa.
In an interview with the Inquirer, the former Armed Forces of the Philippines chief of staff admitted that he was “not totally successful” in implementing the “No tara, No take” policy in the Intelligence Group (IG) and other customs units.
“Tara” is customs slang for grease money paid by smugglers and unscrupulous port operators to corrupt personnel of the Department of Finance (DOF)-attached agency.
But “a lot of things have changed in the Intelligence Group. We have somehow addressed the frontline units’ culture of dependency on the tara,” said Dellosa.
He said that “everything is a work in progress, but the numbers speak for themselves.”
“While the BOC will always be measured by its revenue accomplishments, I would like to put an equal premium on its border protection mandate. The number of apprehensions and seizures compared to the prereform era will show our progress,” he said.
Dellosa recalled that when he joined the bureau in late 2013, his marching orders from Malacañang were to “help in the BOC Reform Project,” which calls for curbing smuggling and instituting a culture change in the BOC, among other goals.
He noted that “in a reform program of this magnitude, we will surely have bumps along the way. We will be hiring people who may fail our expectations. Worse, some may even betray you.”
“But the important thing is not tolerating erring personnel and their actions. And this we were able to do by instituting checks and balances, counterintelligence and other measures to make our people cautious and accountable,” he said.
Dellosa confirmed talk that more than a dozen IG personnel had been dismissed in the past year and a half for “lack of trust and confidence,” if not involvement in tara collection and other corrupt practices.
An undisclosed number of erring staff were transferred to the Customs Policy Research Office, or CPRO, the so-called “freezer” at DOF headquarters.
The IG team includes some customs old-timers “who know the practices that allowed smuggling activities to prosper,” according to Dellosa.
“But I always believe in giving everyone a second chance. My approach was reformative, not punitive. I told them, ‘You all start with a clean slate.’ I did not look into their past. So I brought them on board in the reform advocacy.”
In Malacañang, Presidential Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma confirmed that customs reforms were “still in the work-in-progress mode.”
“Port stakeholders are being consulted and are contributing ideas on improvements that will facilitate the movement of goods through better systems and procedures,” Coloma told the Inquirer.
Last month, Dellosa denied rumors he was quitting after the resignation of John Philip Sevilla as customs chief reportedly due to political pressure to make way for new appointments in the bureau.