President Duterte said Customs Commissioner Nicanor E. Faeldon had offered to quit his post three times for failing to rid the government bureau of corruption.
In the previous administration, former Customs Commissioner Ruffy B. Biazon had also offered his resignation, followed by his deputies then, Deputy Commissioner Danilo D. Lim (Intelligence Group) and Deputy Commissioner Juan Lorenzo Tañada (Internal Administration Group).
Duterte said he will stand by Faeldon, even after his last boo-boo in the Bureau of Customs (BOC), when some P6.4 billion worth of shabu from China slipped past the port of Manila in May, through the express lane of the bureau no less.
But Faeldon’s resignation is not a bad idea, actually, and the President might do well to just accept it.
In the last Senate Blue Ribbon committee hearing on the shabu smuggling where Faeldon finally made an appearance, Duterte’s chosen man at the BOC practically waved the white flag of surrender, admitting he can’t really bust the smuggling syndicates there.
Faeldon said he was aware of the tara (grease money) system at the BOC but he has no one to help him purge the bureau of such large-scale corruption.
They say if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. If Faeldon can’t do the work he was tasked to do, then he or the President should really just leave it to other people who can. Just let him resign.
Indeed, Duterte should ask for everybody’s courtesy resignation in the Customs bureau. He won’t get it, for sure, but it’s worth a try.
In 1992 former President Fidel V. Ramos convened a nine-member committee led by then-Interior Secretary Rafael Alunan to review the continued service of senior superintendents and high-ranking officers in the Philippine National Police (PNP).
Alunan asked for the courtesy resignations of all PNP officers from senior superintendent to the next senior ranks—then Ramos promptly accepted all their resignations.
If the corrupt Customs officials are not willing to resign then there are other ways to get them.
Sure, we agree, corruption is well entrenched in the BOC. Sure, there are powerful people behind smuggling and on its frontlines. This is not news. Not to us or Faeldon or the President.
The President is the most powerful person in the country, with an arsenal of government agencies that could go after grafters upon his orders and he has millions of intelligence funds at his disposal.
If President Duterte really wants to, he has five more years left in his term to put the fear of God in these smugglers and their Customs cohorts. He can go after them any and every which way.
While corruption may not leave a paper trail, wealth is always very hard to hide; and corrupt BOC officials are not exactly shy to flaunt their wealth.
All income is taxable, including the illegally gotten kind. Tax evasion may not be as sensational as plunder but it is more prosecutable and easier to get a conviction from a court of law. Conducting a sweeping asset hunt on Customs officials will likely net more than a few high-profile arrests and convictions.
Duterte can also just start firing people. Sure, this is easier said than done but it can be done nonetheless. Strictly implemented, the Civil Service Law and Rules provide several ways to suspend, remove and prosecute misbehaving public servants.
For instance, falsifying Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth, a violation of Republic Act 6713, or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, can get these corrupt BOC officials fired and land them in jail.
If all else fails, then the President, with the help of his allies in Congress, could just abolish the BOC and create a new agency that could better serve the public, or privatize its functions altogether.
Again, solutions are hard but Duterte already knew this at the start of his term when he pledged to end corruption in government—and where else should he start but with the most corrupt agency.