No silver bullet

When President Duterte announced the military takeover of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) on Sunday night, not a few bristled at such a severe and seemingly rash move. Military men, Mr. Duterte said, would temporarily run the operations of the agency that’s crawling with “lawless elements” while the government ponders “how to effectively meet the challenge of corruption” in the country. Meantime, BOC personnel will be placed on floating status, he said. Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana admitted afterwards that even he wasn’t consulted on the move.

One can understand the President’s apparent frustration at the rank corruption in the agency, laid bare anew by the controversy on the smuggling of P11-billion worth of crystal meth through the Port of Manila. But to send Army, Navy and Coast Guard officers and men to the waterfront not only boggles the mind but also raises alarm. Is there a siege right now at the BOC that would require a military solution?

Sen. Francis Escudero somehow captured the sense of unease and confusion among many when he tweeted: “The President can call on the armed forces to quell lawless violence, invasion or rebellion, but none of these are existent at the BOC.”

At the very least, the planned assignment of military men to the agency smacks of overkill, especially in light of Mr. Duterte’s appointment of Rey Leonardo Guerrero, a former Armed Forces of the Philippines chief, as a replacement for sacked Commissioner Isidro Lapeña, a former Philippine National Police chief.

In the face of public backlash, presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo claimed there is a “state of lawlessness” at the BOC arising from corruption and smuggling of illegal drugs, and that the military men will be there “to intimidate those corrupt people” and provide assistance, if at all. Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra invoked the President’s power of supervision and control over the entire executive department to defend the order.

So far, the details of the planned assignment are up in the air. But they completely miss the point. The President’s order, if it comes to pass, runs counter to the principle of the supremacy of civilian authority over the military. Worse, it violates the prohibition on the assignment of a soldier to a civilian post in government. Article XVI, Section 5 (4) is very clear on this: “No member of the armed forces in the active service shall, at any time, be appointed or designated in any capacity to a civilian position in the government including government-owned or -controlled corporations or any of their subsidiaries.”

Tony La Viña, former dean of the Ateneo School of Government, put it succinctly: A soldier in active service can’t even work as a janitor at the BOC. He has no business being there, period. If Malacañang insists on this, it risks violating the Constitution, and getting haled to court.

The President’s quick-fix solution, which betrays a growing militarist mindset, has revived the debate on whether deploying disciplined officers and men to the ports would do the trick. Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV, a former Navy officer, has offered a sobering thought: The AFP officers and men are trained to deal with security threats, and not to collect customs duties. Worse, he warned, they might just get corrupted by smugglers at the BOC, where driving a luxury car to work doesn’t raise eyebrows.

Actually, it’s not a novel idea. In the 1960s, young, idealistic officers were also put in charge of the agency’s operations, recalled Sen. Panfilo Lacson, a former PNP chief. They couldn’t be bribed, but things took a different turn when smugglers came a-knocking with young, beautiful women, the senator said.

In the Benigno Aquino administration, retired generals were brought in to serve as district-collectors, but their military discipline worked against the agency’s operations. They kept raising alerts, making cargoes pile up at the ports, according to Customs Deputy Collector Ma. Lourdes Mangaoang.

Let’s not go too far. Lapeña and his predecessor, Nicanor Faeldon, a Marine officer, under whose watch some P6.4-billion worth of crystal meth slipped into the country, also failed to clean up the agency.

The military solution is not the silver bullet for the BOC. But taking its incompetent, corrupt officials to task is a good start.