BOC scouting for ‘smart, combative people who take initiatives, turn down bribes’

Customs Commissioner John Phillip Sevilla. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—”Rewrite history … Help reform the Bureau of Customs.”

The twin calls were made by Customs Commissioner John Phillip Sevilla in the BOC website where he also said the Department of Finance-attached agency would like to “hire smart and combative people who can think on their feet, take initiatives and turn down large bribes” from smugglers.

Interested parties can send their recommendations, if not resumes to this e-mail address: [email protected], according to the former DOF undersecretary for privatization.

Sevilla also reported that the bureau’s reform project has been “moving forward” with programs like ports rationalization, better coordination between the BOC and the Bureau of Internal Revenue, adoption of best international Customs practices, implementation of the agency’s international commitments, and updating the outdated Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines.

The project stressed the need to “uproot corruption by rebooting Customs.”

The BOC noted that “a long history of backroom deals, institutionalized theft and impunity have made the bureau one of the most prominent faces of corruption in government.”

However, it said “this is beginning to change with drastic shifts in leadership, personnel and processes already taking place.”

“Our aim is to revitalize the bureaucracy, uproot the culture of corruption and jumpstart a virtuous cycle of integrity and true public service in the BOC,” it also said.

Earlier, Sevilla claimed the project was “starting to work,” citing what he referred to as “encouraging initial results.”

He said they were encouraged by, among others, the bureau’s issuance of an undisclosed number of alert orders on shipments of imported goods that were either mis-declared or undervalued.

“Ninety percent of these shipments had adverse or derogatory findings,” he disclosed.

Sevilla reiterated BOC’s commitment “to closing all the gaps in the system to make it harder for our people to do the bad things and easier for them to do the good things.”

He asserted the bureau’s “zero tolerance to wrongdoings” as he also appealed to Customs shareholders to “do their part in helping reform the Bureau of Customs by strictly complying with the law.”

“We will no longer allow blatant violation of the law here at the BOC,” he said.

In February, the agency implemented new rules on the accreditation of traders and brokers, including securing a clearance from the BIR, another agency attached to the finance department.

The new regulation has been “part of a holistic DOF drive to thwart smugglers,” said the BOC in a statement.

The Philippine Daily Inquirer earlier reported that an undisclosed number of traders continued to get “special treatment” from old hands at the agency.

Under-the table deals between smugglers and corrupt frontline personnel, along with a slowdown in imports, globalization and trade liberalization, are among the main causes of the bureau’s failure to meet its revenue collection targets.

Meanwhile, Sevilla has yet to comment on the reported feud between the offices of the Customs deputy commissioners for the Intelligence Group and the Enforcement Group, both of which have accused each other of corruption.

The alleged animosity between the two groups started when a certain Lamberto Lopez filed a graft case before the Ombudsman against two IG personnel.

Lopez represented himself as an administrative officer of the Cebu City-based firm 88 Circle Trading whose shipments of GI wires from China have been held at the Port of Cebu pursuant to an alert order issued by the IG, headed by Deputy Commissioner Jessie Dellosa.

In an affidavit, Lopez alleged that he gave P450,000 cash to IG staff Jarvis Cinches during a recent meeting at the Midas hotel on Roxas Boulevard supposedly in exchange for the release of the subject shipments.

However, the shipments were not released, prompting Lopez to file the graft case.

Cinches, former chief of the Cagayan de Oro unit of the defunct Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group, did not respond to the INQUIRER’s request for an interview. A check with the BOC disclosed that the DOF’s Office of Revenue Agency Modernization, or ORAM is his mother unit but was recently detailed to the IG.

Lopez later recanted his earlier complaint, saying he was paid to do so by a certain Geni Agco, who, in turn, allegedly took his orders from Jeff Patawaran, a consultant to Ariel Nepomuceno, deputy commissioner for the EG.

Patawaran once served as chief of staff of former PASG chief Antonio Villar.

Both Dellosa and Roberto Almadin, head of the Custom-Cebu collection district, had denied the involvement of their offices in the alleged anomaly. Nepomuceno has yet to comment on the issue.