SHORTFALLS: Nonfeasance in office bordering on the criminal can describe Customs Commissioner Raffy Biazon’s utter failure to curb big-time smuggling of high-value commodities and his not meeting the already downgraded revenue targets set for his agency.
When Biazon took over customs halfway of 2011, the bureau had a record-breaking P57-billion deficit in collection. He had a convenient excuse since he only inherited the problems of his predecessor.
In 2012, noting slow collections in the first few months, he asked the Department of Finance to lower the customs collection target from P365 billion to P347 billion. Despite that, he delivered his own record-breaking shortfall of P59 billion.
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EXCUSES: This year, there is an indication that the bureau may yet turn in another lackluster collection. It has already recorded a shortfall of P7 billion for March, which would probably make a past president laugh as P7 billion during her term was already an annual shortfall.
No one in recent memory has failed so spectacularly in meeting the downsized targets for an agency and yet remain in office on the unconvincing excuse that the criticisms are the same ones faced by his predecessors.
He goes around blaming almost everybody in his bureau, because ‑ as the old argument goes — most of them are apparently rotten to the core and thus the bureau itself needs to be completely overhauled, if not privatized.
He ignores indications that some of his hand-picked people whom he brought with him into the bureau have been mired in controversies during his watch.
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INDUSTRIES HURTING: The credibility of the administration is being threatened by a shortage of funds for infrastructure and other projects. The delivery of essential services cannot ride on the President’s sheer popularity or the say-so of credit-raters and survey organizations.
Big industries are hurting. They are the ones already complaining about large-scale smuggling under the very nose of customs. First, it was the hog growers, then the rice farmers, the steel industry, the car manufacturers and then the big oil companies.
When legitimate importers are the ones already complaining, there is a serious problem with the management of customs.
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BUMUBUKOL: Data from the International Monetary Fund’s Direction of Trade Statistics indicate that smuggling under the Aquino administration has averaged $19.6 billion annually.
Compare this staggering figure to the $3.1 billion and $3.8 billion yearly during the Estrada and the Arroyo administrations, respectively.
In the first two years of the Aquino administration, the value of smuggling totaled $39.2 billion, more than the $35.6 billion during the entire nine years of the previous Arroyo administration!
It cannot be that President Aquino does not see this massive problem. Why is he not acting on it? Bumubukol na po!
But Biazon, who we understand has offered to resign, has been told to stay on.
It seems the customs commissioner can no longer be removed just like that. He is a team player, if you know what we mean.
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MY SENATORS: With one week to go to Election Day, friends are asking one another whom they will vote for senator and other positions.
To me, the candidate’s party affiliation is irrelevant. These politicians keep flip-flopping and flitting from one party to another, I have lost track.
I will not vote for a dynastic candidate (using my own definition of what a political dynasty is), not vote for someone who I know is corrupt, or immoral, or who is in politics just for the fund of it. I cannot vote for anyone who lacks an impressive public service track record.
At this point, I have only Dick Gordon and Mitos Magsaysay in my senatorial list. I will add only five more choices before I vote on May 13.
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MY PARTY-LIST: I am leery of party-list groups, but I got the chance days ago to examine the plans and programs of AANI (Ang Agrikultura Natin Isulong), and I have decided to vote for it.
I found very realistic AND DOABLE its productivity program for small farmers, whom it has been helping long before it decided to vie for a party-list seat. Its nominees are old hands in agriculture and extension work, banking-finance and executive-legislative liaison, and so have the experience to make their vision a reality.
AANI was formed in 2003 by five female lawyers. The group worked hand-in-hand with thousands of farmers, mostly in Mindanao, who not only learned modern agricultural practices but also their rights as citizens and the obligation of the state to them as a productive sector.
Originally known as Kapatiran Para sa Kaunlaran sa Kanayunan(KPKK), AANI as a non-government organization has linked up with some legislators, members of the academe, international aid groups and other NGOs to push projects that will benefit the rural population.
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LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM: Last year, AANI negotiated a contract to participate in a radio program (“Itanong Mo Kay Papa Joeâ€) on DZXL to further raise awareness of farmers’ rights and welfare. The program gives farmers timely and practical information on how to improve harvests.
Its legislative program includes insurance coverage for farmers and their crops, the use of pork barrel exclusively for providing farm inputs and implements (such as hand tractors), subsidy for those who work on farms that are seven hectares and smaller, a 10-year holiday on farm inputs, a special rediscounting window for banks at a minimum of 2 percent interest and a maximum of 4 percent, modernization/mechanization of farm collectives, and checking the conversion of farm lands into commercial and industrial zones.
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