BOC and ‘Italians’ on the block

Don’t look now but a bunch of Congressmen are rumored to be planning to turn the Bureau of Customs as well as certain car distributors into their post Thanksgiving turkeys.

In a country where the word secret does not apply and where information is casually parlayed or given in friendship or for protection, it is interesting how word gets around from different sources making it so easy to verify a story simply by connecting the dots.

Sometime ago, several car crazy individuals independently started reaching out to motoring journalists and automotive distributors. They were telling them about an on-going development that is slowly becoming an apparent scheme or plot by certain politicians to go after the Bureau of Customs as well as “Italian” brands, allegedly for the BOC’s failure to reach its quota and pinning the blame or the donkey’s tail on certain car importers.

One would dismiss the story as hearsay, if it had come from a tainted source or just a handful of talkative busybodies. But when the reports trickle in from Congressional and Senatorial relatives such as their own brothers, cousins and aides who happen to be best buddies with people in motoring, when the “good guys” from within the BOC co-relate the “talk” with the pressure now felt or sensed by insiders. Add all of that to the fact that Trapos or traditional politicians no longer have their usual campaign fund sources such as PDAF and DAP, the stories all come to one conclusion: The search for campaign funds has begun!

While the BOC, under its new leadership, has been intently studying the numbers in terms of imported units, blue book tax values versus tax payments, I’ve been told that the BOC Commissioner does not have an axe to grind with car importers and distributors. It just so happens that vehicles are one of the top 5 sources of income or duties for the BOC, which is why these are always under the magnifying glass. What the BOC Commissioner has been looking into are the facts and figures that he personally has been reading and analyzing “even on Saturdays” and is intent on imposing them. There however was never any plan to single out a specific type, brand or country of origin.

On the other hand, a couple of sources have told us that the BOC is indeed on the radar of rascals in Congress for two reasons. With all the illegal and traditional campaign sources wiped out, politicians now find themselves relying on every bit, every morsel of cash they can collect for the 2016 elections. In the old days, the collections and contributions given by appointees and favored smuggler/brokers protected by politicians was considered as “good time money” or “for the boys.” Now the politicians need the money for their campaign and political survival.

Their problem is the BOC leadership has made it extremely difficult and economically impossible for smugglers and hoodlums to operate and pay protection money or contributions at the same time. What the BOC has done is to apply the rules on proper documentation and clearances as well as impose proper valuation and collection of taxes which is partly the reason why processing has slowed down. If operators would give any contributions to powers that be in Congress and elsewhere, it would only be for being in the favored position to do business in the ports such as shipping, handling, brokerage, warehousing etc. Otherwise the good old days of easy pickings and under payment of taxes are gone for the moment.

And that apparently is what certain politicians particularly in Congress want to chip away at by chipping away at the BOC and Commissioner Sevilla to soften him up or intimidate him even to the point of raising personal issues. This of course is all part of a historical tradition where “clean or honest” BOC officials were beat up, bullied, or stepped over by politicians and it has always worked because civil society and media have never stepped into the fray before. The good guys in the past who have left the BOC will probably tell you tales of their enemies using intimidation, coercion and going to their bosses in DOF and Malacañang to push them aside or fire them.

The other part of the plan is to attack the BOC’s failure to collect its target, force the commissioner to point the blame at “gray market car importers” as one of the culprits, so the politicians can pin down the Italian brands who don’t have friends or partners in the Cabinet or the Liberal party. The strategy is that by proposing or suggesting to drag the business owners to a congressional investigation, the low-key, scandal phobic businessmen will be all too willing to cooperate outside Congress and be instant supporters and contributors!

What some people have to realize is that there is a difference between “gray market” (which are non-official importer sellers) and legitimate official distributors. The official distributors undergo a series of qualifications from their principals abroad. They are registered and regulated by government from point A to Z. Most if not all of these vehicles are brought in and through the Port of Manila and Batangas where there are established procedures and are considered “non-smuggler” facilities for vehicle importers unlike Cebu, Davao, Cagayan and some smaller ports in Mindanao.

If some half-cocked campaign collector threatens to drag legitimate companies to congressional hearings it’s not as simple as “talking amongst ourselves.” International brands have international reputations to protect and they will proactively respond to the detriment of businesses and the country’s reputation. An equally big worry is that if the potential extortionists succeed, what’s to stop them from going after Japanese, Korean and Chinese brands? Do they all have to get current Cabinet members as partners or board of directors to protect them?

Hopefully, now that I’m writing about the “tsismis,” some of those politicians will have second thoughts or at least find some other ways and means to fund their careers.

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