Duterte’s “joke” really targeted himself

Finally Senate President Vicente Sotto III has come up with a plan or proposal to privatize the Bureau of Customs (BOC) as a way to solve the crisis of corruption that has literally ruined this government agency. The first thing Sotto ought to do is look for privatized customs bureaus all over the world that we can follow.

We learned that Finance Assistant Secretary Mark Dennis Y.C. Joven said the department is currently studying the possibility of privatizing some processes of the BOC and the Bureau of Internal Revenue within the bounds of the law. He continued saying: “We’re studying whether or not some customs functions may be privatized legally, and assuming it is not, we can just solicit help from these industry groups to at least help in ensuring that reporting of imports is accurate. Legally speaking, if it’s a sovereign function, we cannot privatize it. So we need to identify (items on the) value chain (that are) allowed to be privatized, and whether doing so would make things more efficient.”

This review follows a number of high-profile incidents such as the import of substandard steel bars that passed through the BOC and the prevalence of counterfeit tax stamps — which led to a shuttering of a cigarette firm. One of the most common corrupt practices in the BOC is the port official’s adjustment of shipment valuations in favor of the importer, lowering the latter’s taxes. So in the end we just learned that the BOC cannot privatize itself; which is why it needs to be a law. Unfortunately, I checked Google for countries that privatized their customs bureau and I came out with nothing. So we’ll have to take baby steps in walking into this new idea. Who knows, it might really solve the problem of corruption in the BOC!

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We read in the news that President Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte questioned the observance of All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day. Yet Malacañang came up with an earlier greeting to mark the observance of these holidays. Now sources from Malacañang said that Duterte’s remark about Catholicism’s veneration of saints was just a “joke” and would not affect the credibility of the 2,000-year-old faith.

Frankly speaking, I no longer give any importance to what President Duterte says about the Catholic religion and our faith and morals. So when he said what he said, I took it with a grain of salt. But I’m glad that our beloved Archbishop Jose Palma of the Archdiocese of Cebu responded to the president’s off-the-cuff-statement.

Palma said: “President Duterte, though the country’s most powerful man, was not in a position to interpret doctrines based on his own beliefs or out of emotions. He is not a theologian nor has even studied catechesis or theology. He is not an official teacher of doctrine. Every time I hear him saying things like this, I just say to myself, why is he making such remarks when he is not a teacher of doctrine? We better decipher what to believe and what not to believe in what he says.” At least Archbishop Palma was able to defend this Catholic tradition which Filipinos have celebrated for centuries even when the Philippines was under the rule of a nonChristian country, Japan!

For the record, as I pointed out, President Duterte’s remarks came on the same day Malacañang issued his message for All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, calling on Filipinos for a “solemn and meaningful” celebration” and urging the public to “emulate our saints.” The Malacañang statement read: “Together, let us emulate our saints, pray for the eternal repose of souls and deepen our engagement with our communities as we work for real and lasting change.” So the question is, who actually wrote this message? For me, I’m positive that it was not written by President Duterte himself. As Archbishop Palma believes, Catholics in the country were mature enough to dismiss the president’s mockery of the saints. To top it all, President Duterte visited the tomb of his father and mother in Davao. So the joke is really on President Duterte!

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For email responses to this article, write to vsbobita@gmail.com. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.