Lapeña: BOC won’t be an extension of PDEA

Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña

Customs Commissioner Isidro Lapeña has allayed fears of employees that the Bureau of Customs (BOC) would become an extension of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA).

“There is no truth to this and this will not happen,” he said, particularly addressing the Bureau of Customs Employees Association (Bocea).

He said his plan was to fill up the more than 3,000 vacancies in the bureau to address the employees’ complaints against performing dual or multiple tasks.

“This is also an answer to the lack of personnel in the bureau’s outports,” he said.

He assured BOC employees that the hiring process, aside from being open to all interested applicants, would be transparent and in accordance with the Civil Service rules.

“PDEA employees, numbering around 2,000, also have their own challenging mandate to fulfill,” he said.

Open to dialogue

“As the customs chief, my focus and energies belong to the Bureau of Customs. Be that as it may, my door is open to a dialogue with Bocea,” he said.

Lapeña earlier sacked 10 district collectors and 30 section chiefs in a bid to stop corruption and benchmarking in ports.

According to Lapeña, benchmarking involved “setting a certain value for an entire shipment” without considering the individual value of its content. This practice, he said, “often leads to importers giving tara” to customs personnel to fast-track the processing of their shipment.

Consequently, he appointed some officials from PDEA, which he previously headed.

Among these were: Melvin Estoque from PDEA Regional Office VII, now the chief of Account Management Office, in charge of accrediting importers; Director Jeoffrey Tacio from PDEA Regional Office I, now the new leader of the Import Assessment Service; and PDEA Regional Office IV-B Director Jacquelyn De Guzman, now the officer in charge of the Administration office.