Reforms, not just change of men at Customs

Despite being preoccupied with the frenzy of activities to prepare for the onslaught of super typhoon “Yolanda,” President Benigno “Noy” Aquino lll was obviously kept busy signing appointment papers. In the midst of the national government operations to aid victims and survivors of Yolanda for the past two weeks, presidential attention to the overhaul of the Bureau of Customs remains in his radar.

When Yolanda struck last November 8, President Aquino appointed Ariel Nepomuceno as deputy commissioner of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) Enforcement Group. But Malacañang Palace announced his appointment only last week.

Nepomuceno is assuming this post which was one of the two positions previously held in a concurrent capacity by newly appointed Customs deputy commissioner, retired General Jessie Dellosa. The ex-Armed Forces chief of staff, appointed to Customs last month, will keep his post as deputy commissioner for Intelligence Group.

 Previously, retired General Danilo “Danny” Lim was the deputy commissioner for Intelligence. The post became vacant when Lim along with five other Customs deputy commissioners submitted their courtesy resignations in July this year. This was a few days after President Aquino made the stinging attacks against the Customs Bureau in his state of the nation address (SONA) at the joint opening session of the 16th Congress.

 But Customs commissioner Rozzano Rufino “Ruffy” Biazon beat them all. Biazon was the first to offer his resignation through his controversial text message sent to President Aquino immediately after the SONA. But that’s now history since P-Noy rejected Biazon’s offer and reiterated his confidence to the embattled Customs chief.

 As a former politician himself, Biazon only knows too well he has to do a lot of things to reverse public opinion on the very damaging presidential tirades at the agency he heads. He served for three consecutive terms as congressman from Muntinlupa City. But he lost when he ran as one of the 12 senatorial candidates of the Liberal Party slate of President Aquino in the May 2010 elections.

 After the one-year ban on losing candidates from appointments to executive positions, P-Noy tapped Biazon to become his Customs chief in September 2011. More than three years into office, Biazon did not expect the presidential ire at his agency would highlight the SONA.

 Loose talk on corruption, smuggling and other shenanigans rained down on the entire Customs organization. This led to the en masse forced resignation of all district Customs collectors nationwide.

 The Bureau of Customs became ripe for the picking.

 Then came the new appointments and the reorganization of the Customs Bureau that came in batches. Nepomuceno’s appointment was the latest to be transmitted to Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, whose department has jurisdiction over the Customs Bureau and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).

 Although he is an acknowledged member of Philippine Military Academy (PMA) Class of 1987, Nepomuceno actually did not finish his military course. He shifted to a degree in history at the University of the Philippines and later took up law.

Being a PMAer, Nepomuceno is thus seen as having strong links with military officers. He is the former director and executive officer of the Office of Civil Defense of the Department of National Defense. As I gathered, Nepomuceno also had a stint at the Department of Agriculture during the term of ex-secretary and now Bohol Congressman Arthur Yap. He was appointed as senior vice president of the Food Terminal Inc. where he was the “silent operator” of Yap in going after “rice cartels” that cornered importations in the country during the Arroyo administration.

Eight retired military and police generals – at least three of them classmates of Dellosa – will take over the posts of BOC officials who were put on floating status effective the appointment of their replacements. Former brigadier generals Esteban Castro (who once headed Task Force Malampaya) and Alejandro Estomo, and former major general Elmir de la Cruz all belong to PMA Matapat Class of 1979, of which Dellosa is also a member.

Purisima assigned Castro to the Clark International Airport. Estomo replaces career official Fernandino Tuazon of the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service while De la Cruz heads the Manila International Container Port.

The five other retired officers are Brig. Gen. Roberto Almadin, assigned to the port of Cebu; Arnulfo Marcos to the port of Subic; Mario Mendoza to the port of Manila and ex-colonel Ernesto Benitez to the port of Batangas.

 Retired police chief superintendent Willie Tolentino was designated to the Customs police, or the Enforcement Security Service under the Enforcement Group of the agency. Six others – four lawyers, a customs broker and a former journalist– were also appointed to various posts as more than 50 employees, including career officials, went to the so-called “freezer” – the DOF’s Customs Policy Research Office (CPRO).

 Charo Lagamon, a former ABS-CBN business reporter, was appointed as head of the Customs public information assistance division. Lagamon – whose maiden name is Charo Logarta – is married to Army Col. Arvil Lagamon, PMA Class 1992.

Though surrounded with former men in uniform, Biazon, however, is no stranger to the military environment. He is after all the son of a former AFP chief of staff and now the incumbent Muntinlupa City Congressman Rodolfo Biazon.

The Customs chief is thus well versed with the “chain of command” and the “unity of command” which are the words they in the military understand. “And there is just one Commissioner,” Biazon added.

  As the Commissioner in charge, Biazon’s battle cry is to implement reforms at the Bureau of Customs that are institutional, long lasting, and irreversible. He is counting on the support of his father and his LP brothers in the 16th Congress to push the passage into law of the long-pending Customs Modernization bill.

 With the advent of the ASEAN free trade regime by 2015, the proposed law, among other things, will institute reforms at the Customs Bureau, not just changes in men. Without these reforms, the agency may become irrelevant with the globalized trading regime where goods and services freely come into the country at zero duty.