EDITORIAL - Cracking down on smuggling

One presidential adviser is openly pushing for the death penalty for smugglers, and for good reason. The evils of smuggling items such as prohibited drugs and guns are clear enough. But even the smuggling of innocuous items such as rice, sugar and raw materials for manufacturing can have a devastating effect on the economy. Smugglers pose unfair competition, especially to Filipino entrepreneurs already struggling in the treacherous currents of free trade. Smugglers can price their products so low it skews market forces, creating an artificial environment that can wreak havoc on an economy, especially one that’s still recovering from a global crunch.

At the vanguard of efforts to crack down on smuggling is the Bureau of Customs. Over the years, however, the bureau has gained notoriety for abetting smuggling instead of stopping it, for harboring crooks instead of catching them.

Today there will be a new man at the Customs help. Bidding goodbye to Customs personnel the other day, Titus Villanueva put emphasis on the bureau’s computerization program, which aims to minimize graft and corruption. As Villanueva described it, "mobile-commerce" has reduced opportunities for graft and hastened the payment of Customs taxes and duties. His successor, Finance Assistant Secretary Antonio Bernardo, is expected to continue the modernization program.

Among the biggest abettors of smuggling, however, are public officials themselves – politicians, military and police officers, people from all branches of government. The Estrada administration was rocked by scandal after scandal involving smuggled luxury vehicles, sugar, even clothing and sardines. Every change of government is accompanied by speculations on which presidential relative will get involved in Customs operations.

Bernardo should continue reducing opportunities for graft at the bureau, facilitating transactions of legitimate businessmen and upgrading the skills of Customs personnel. But cleaning up the bureau and cracking down on smuggling will require the national leadership’s full support and political will.