Palace concerned about lack of firearms of Customs police

MANILA, Philippines – The Bureau of Customs’ (BOC) shortage of police personnel and lack of firearms have caught Malacañang’s attention and President Arroyo wants the problem addressed.

BOC Deputy Commissioner for Enforcement Group Horacio Suansing Jr. told reporters that the sorry state of Customs Police was recently taken up during the National Competitiveness Council (NCC) in the Palace.

“Usually, it is President Arroyo who heads the NCC meetings but at that time she was having her self-imposed quarantine. So it was Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita who supervised the meeting,” said Suansing.

At the meeting, officials discussed the “Assessment of the Effectiveness of the Customs Police.”

The Customs Police is under the Enforcement and Security Service (ESS), which is under Suansing’s office.

The NCC is composed of officials from the government and business leaders from the private sector. Trade Secretary Peter Favila is the co-chairman for the public sector while his counterpart from the private sector is Ambassador Cesar Bautista.

“This was the first time that the members of the NCC focused on the Customs Police, particularly on news reports on the shortage of personnel and firearms… In principle there is a lack of funds,” Suansing said.

The Deputy Commissioner said these issues have to be resolved so that the BOC can address alleged corruption and smuggling within the agency.

The problem was highlighted because they said it was a known fact that “if the BOC succeeds in controlling the smuggling, the agency would be able to generate more revenue collection for the government and the local sector would surely benefit.”

During the meeting, Suansing said nobody raised any negative comment on ESS because he said they knew they were doing their job at the agency but admitted that the President has high expectations of him.

The BOC last March 5 had already written a letter of request to Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. for an allocation of P5-million budget for the purchase of 200 weapons.

They also asked the DBM to consider the agency’s hiring of 231 Customs police officers to replace the policemen who retired or left the bureau since 2004.

Not all the vacancy positions hold the lowest rank of special agent 1, which earns a monthly salary of a little above P10,000. Some of the positions that need to be filled up are majors, captains and lieutenants and would have to be given salaries commensurate to their positions.

The BOC has yet to receive a response from the Department of Budget and Management.