Show political will against smuggling

ON DISTANT SHORE
By Val G. Abelgas 

If it were that simple, the proposal of Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon to abolish completely the Bureau of Customs to “once and for all end corruption” in the decadent government agency would have been a laudable one. Indeed, all the corrupt officials and employees of the bureau would be rooted out in one sweep move. But that’s assuming that all customs officials and employees are corrupt, or is that a fair assumption to make?

Biazon is saying that the customs bureau is a hopeless case, and nothing, absolutely nothing would make it any better. And that smuggling would be eradicated only if the agency tasked to make sure that all goods that enter the country are properly taxed, is removed and replaced with a new one.

It was a clear sign of surrender on the part of Biazon, just days after several trade organizations and businessmen demanded his resignation following reports that smuggling has worsened under his watch. Since the agency he was tasked to cleanse is hopelessly impossible to clean up, just burn the infested house and build a new one. Complex problem, simple solution.

Such an approach would make logical the common cry of revolutionaries throughout history to annihilate a deeply corrupt political system and replace it with a new one. If Biazon’s logic would be pursued, the Philippines’ political system is so deeply rooted in corruption and injustice that it should be completely destroyed and replaced with a better one.

Biazon was asked to look into the problems of the customs bureau and his prognosis, after less than 20 months on the job, was that the customs bureau, like the liver that is plagued with incurable cancer, should be removed and replaced with a new one. But will the new liver save the patient? Will the new private entity that Biazon is proposing stop smuggling and curb corruption? What guarantees do we have that the private officials and employees will not succumb to the political and monetary pressures from the smugglers and their protectors?

In a talk with President Aquino, Biazon cited the example of Peru, which, to defeat corruption and smuggling, abolished its customs department, put up a new one, adopted strict qualifications for hiring, and paid higher salaries to the new officers and employees running the new agency. He did not categorically say, though, that the Peru experiment was a success.

Biazon said in the Philippines, corruption is deeply entrenched in the customs bureau’s culture and system, so firing a few people or catching some smugglers will not solve the problem.

In that point, Biazon may be right. Indeed, firing a few people and catching some smugglers have not solved the problem. On the other hand, most often, only the small fry in the bureau are dismissed and only the small smugglers are caught, and often not even prosecuted.

What if senior officials, bigtime smugglers, along with their protectors in the higher echelons of government are caught, given maximum prison sentences and their assets garnished? Won’t these send shivers throughout the customs and smuggling community?

The problem brings us to a much bigger problem outside the jurisdiction of the customs bureau – the failure of law enforcement to catch the corrupt customs officials and the smugglers, and of the justice department to punish them. In other words, it is but a part of a general failure of government to enforce the laws, to impose its will to correct a wrong.

Smuggling and corruption in the customs bureau are like the other cancer cells that have long been eating away at the foundations of our political system — political patronage, election fraud, culture of impunity, jueteng, graft and corruption, etc. Only a strong political will from the national leaders, specifically the President, can eradicate them.

In any case, it has become obvious that the Bureau of Customs is guilty of monumental failure to curb smuggling and raise the needed revenues for government.

According to Rosendo So, chairman of Abono and Swine Development Council, citing Bureau of Customs records, the Philippines has become known as “the smuggling capital of Asia” after some P32 billion worth of rice, onions, meat and poultry products and P30 billion worth of petroleum products were smuggled into the country last year alone.

“In 2012 alone, the total volume of smuggled agricultural products amounted to P32 billion. As much as 600,000 metric tons of rice worth P10 billion was smuggled into the country, smuggled chicken and pork products reached P8 billion, fish and aquatic products at P3.8 billion, sugar at P4.8 billion, and onion and other vegetables at P3.5 billion,” So said.

So is talking only of agricultural products and petroleum. You can just imagine if you considered other goods coming into the country without paying the correct taxes and duties — cars, electronics, toys, scooters, etc. The government not only loses billions of pesos in unpaid duties, the Philippine economy suffers because of the adverse effects that smuggling brings to local industries that have to compete with these smuggled goods.

It’s a problem just as worse as billionaires and multi-millionaires not paying the proper income taxes. No wonder the Philippine government always has to scratch the bottom of the barrel for much-needed funds to finance its various programs. No wonder that the supposed economic growth has not trickled down to the poor.

President Aquino has to show political will to solve the problems plaguing the two premier revenue-raising agencies of the government — the Bureau of Customs and the Bureau of Internal Revenue. If he is really serious in pursuing the “daang matuwid,” he should start with the most corrupt-ridden agency, the customs bureau.

Can’t Aquino personally take over the agency, and start firing the most corrupt officials and bringing to jail the smugglers and their protectors in government? That would certainly project to the people and to callous customs officials that the government means business. It’s called political will.

(valabelgas@aol.com)