AN opposition senator on Monday slammed government “theatrics” in the Duterte administration’s efforts to carry out reforms at the Bureau of Customs (BOC) in the wake of a raging scandal triggered by the P11-billion shabu illegal-drug shipment that was allowed to pass through Customs inspection.
“Placing the AFP [Armed Forces of the Philippines] in charge of the BOC may appear decisive and daring, but what we need are no-nonsense solutions, not theatrics,” said Sen. Francis N. Pangilinan.
This, even as Sen. Panfilo M. Lacson Sr. prodded beleaguered BOC officials to “learn from history,” suggesting the need for the revenue-raising bureau to “establish a focused counterintelligence system to curb corruption, and prioritize leadership by example.”
“These can help the Bureau of Customs curb corruption without having to tap officers from the Armed Forces of the Philippines,” Lacson, a member of the Philippine Military Academy Class 1971, said recalling a lesson from the 1960s, showing the use of idealistic AFP officers to run the BOC did not work, “after the smuggling rings used women to sway them.”
In a post on his twitter account, Lacson recalled that “some young, idealistic AFP officers were put in charge of BOC operations. They learned fast, they couldn’t be bribed or intimidated. The smugglers used equally young, beautiful women to influence them. The rest is history we don’t want to remember.”
In a separate statement, Pangilinan pointed out that placing a revenue-generating agency under the AFP is “of doubtful legality.”
“What does AFP know about collecting taxes and tariffs? The bureaucracy is becoming militarized. What’s next? BIR? Immigration? Not all military officials are effective managers like inept Capt. [Nicanor E.] Faeldon and Gen. [Iisdro S.] Lapeña of BOC and Jason Aquino of NFA [National Food Authority],” Pangilinan said.
The opposition senator added: “Regardless of who manages the Bureau of Customs, if Malacañang itself tolerates and does not punish Faeldon and Lapeña and doesn’t show any teeth and outrage against drug lords, nothing will come of AFP’s transfer because it will only follow Malacañang’s orders.”
Pangilinan suggested that the solution is not in the transfer of any agency but in “showing that incompetent officials and the syndicates they are in connivance with, all big fish, are punished and held to account.”
For his part, Lacson stressed that smuggling syndicates, especially those smuggling illegal drugs, will “employ all tricks to pursue their nefarious activities.”
Instead, the senator stressed the need for a sophisticated counterintelligence mechanism in the BOC. “I can only suggest that a continuous, dedicated, focused, highly classified and sophisticated counterintelligence operations should be put in place to watch the watchdogs, so to speak,” he said.
Lacson added: “More important…those in charge should apply the principle of leadership by example, not in words, but in practice.”
Lacson recalled that he practiced leadership by example when he headed the Philippine National Police (PNP) from 1999 to 2001. Under his watch, Lacson said, the PNP became disciplined and efficient. This, in turn, earned Lacson and the PNP’s high approval marks from the public. “It is second to none. There is no substitute to it [principle of leadership by example] that I know of,” Lacson stressed.
Meanwhile, National Police (PNP) chief Director General Oscar D. Albayalde has ordered the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and the Directorate for Personnel and Records Management to ensure the availability of six dismissed and active policemen in connection with the ongoing investigation into the alleged shabu smuggling at the BOC.
Albayalde said he had also instructed the PNP Internal Affairs Service (IAS) to immediately conduct an investigation to determine whether there is probable cause to file administrative cases against the active policemen.
The policemen were identified as Senior Supt. Eduardo Acierto, Senior Supt. Leonardo Suan, Supt. Lorenzo Bacia, Insp. Lito Pirote, Insp. Conrado Caragdag and SPO4 Alejandro Gerardo Liwanag.
Except for Acierto, who had been dismissed from the service by the Office of the Ombudsman, all the other policemen are on active-duty status.
Acierto and the five policemen were earlier named in a report released by President Duterte to be possibly involved in the operation of illegal drugs in the country.
Malacañang, meanwhile, said the BOC will be placed under military control “until the President is satisfied that everything is in order.”
The President was “disgusted” with what had recently transpired and forced the President to ask the AFP to take over the “graft-ridden” bureau.
“The people he has placed at the top are men of integrity and that he trust completely but somehow because of rotten system, it just slipped past. So in other words, the problem is with those at the bottom and not the ones he appointed so precisely, he is getting people from AFP to help [in the cleansing of the bureau],” Presidential Spokesman and Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador S. Panelo said in a briefing with Palace reporters on Monday.
Sacked Deputy Customs Collector Lourdes Mangaoang has also said in a television interview that putting BOC under military control would not be the “perfect solution”, citing that the agency’s previous experience with military men did not also turn out well.
With Bernadette D. Nicolas and Rene Acosta