‘Smugglers will be unmasked’

MANILA, Philippines - Smugglers will be identified and arrested, and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) cleansed.

This was the commitment of Malacañang when asked if the BOC could still be reformed.

“Yes, it can be done. (Customs) Commissioner (Phillip) Sevilla can do it,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte yesterday said over radio dzRB.

Earlier, Sevilla was quoted in a report as saying he had “never been in a place where there’s so much bad-mouthing” and that he had received many reports about supposed irregularities involving BOC personnel.

But Valte said that since Sevilla, along with other officials appointed to cleanse the BOC, is just newly installed, they must be given time as many things need to be done.

They must be given the opportunity to form their team first and fulfill the mandate given to them by President Aquino, she added.

In spite of reports of irregularities in the BOC, the agency did not only reach its P300-billion collection “milestone mark,” it even surpassed this target as predicted by former Customs Commissioner Rufino Biazon.

By Dec. 26 or five days before the year 2013 ends, the BOC’s revenue collection has reached P303 billion.

Just before Biazon stepped down as BOC chief, he already foresaw that the bureau would reach P300 billion in revenue collection, which “could be the first in history.”

A source in the BOC said that “these are all cash collections. The revenues from the tax expenditure fund (TEF) are not yet included, and the collections would still increase once the revenues from the ports on Friday (Dec. 27) come in.”

The revenues in the form of cash are the actual collections from the ports, while TEF are paper revenues from the importation of government agencies.