Senator Ralph Recto INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
President Rodrigo Duterte should appoint new, competent officials at the Bureau of Customs (BOC) “to fix the mess” in the agency, Senator Ralph Recto said on Friday.
“A revamp is in order. With the resignation of most members of the current management, a new team must be appointed immediately,” Recto said in a statement.
“These must be competent and ethical people, knowledgeable of the intricacies and culture of Customs operators because the country cannot afford OJTs on training wheels being appointed to such a crucial job,” he added.
In a span of days, BOC intelligence chief Neil Anthony Estrella and Import Assessment Services director Milo Maestrecampo quit their positions “as a sign of delicadeza amid simultaneous Congress investigations into the smuggling of P6.4-billion high-grade methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu).
Estrella and Maestrecampo were earlier tagged by private customs broker Mark Taguba of accepting bribe money to process shipments in the agency. Both have denied the accusations.
READ: Customs intelligence chief resigns amid shabu smuggling probe
Recto said the Palace should fix the mess in the agency or else government projects will suffer.
“The government will not be able to deliver on its promises to the people if its second biggest supplier of funds is broken, malfunctioning and damaged,” he said.
This year, the lawmaker explained, BOC is tasked to collect P468 billion or P1.28 billion daily. This could “fund 20 percent of the total length of roads built, classrooms constructed, medicines bought, and textbooks distributed this year.”
“Thus, BOC performance, or nonperformance, is critical to both government operations and dreams. Taxes are what translate election rhetoric into reality,” he said. JPV