FIGHT GOV’T CORRUPTION WITH WORD OF GOD – EXEC

Why is corruption prevalent at the Bureau of Customs?

Because “all the devils are there,” said Customs deputy commissioner Edward James Dy Buco, quoting part of Senator Panfilo Lacson's privilege speech last August 23 where the senator named the alleged bribe givers or “players” at the bureau.

Dy Buco, a lawyer and a Christian pastor, was in Cebu City on Saturday to launch his book titled “Resist: The Biblical Perspective on Corruption.”

“Hell is empty because all devils are in the Customs,” he said in his speech during the book launch. “Shocking but true, hell is empty because Satan might have sent all the devils to attack Customs.”

In his speech, Lacson had alleged that BOC officials, including former commissioner Nicanor Faeldon, and employees collected payola or “tara” amounting to up to P71,700 on each shipment smuggled through the agency.

Smugglers, he said, paid the BOC central office a “standard tara” of P19,000 to P45,000 for each container.

In addition, official and employees of the Manila International Container Port allegedly collected an extra tara of P14,700 to P23,700 for each 40-foot container and P12,200 to P20,700 for each 20-foot container.

For Dy Buco, the “force of evil” is the reason why the agency consistently “gets the honor of being the most corrupt agency, not only in the Philippines but perhaps in entire Asia.”

“That's how the devil works. It can throw an entire agency into darkness,” he said.

SOLUTION

There is a silver lining, though. Dy Buco said the way to defeat corruption is to seek help from God.

“We cannot fight the strong force of evil with the weapons of man… Reading and understanding the word of God is our act of war,” he said.

His book outlines what he called as “God's ways” to defeat the systemic corruption in the government and compiles biblical verses relevant to address the problem.

Dy Buco said “Resist” details the dynamics of corruption, its beginnings, specifically identifying the real culprit behind it, its schemes and methods, as well as its effects.

The book has been launched in Manila and Cebu and will soon be introduced in Davao City and other parts of the country.