‘Duterte should take over Customs during transition’

Lawmakers yesterday recommended President Duterte should take over the Bureau of Customs (BOC) while Congress is creating two offices to replace the bureau.

The recommendation is contained in the report by the committee on ways and means of the House of Representatives on its inquiry into BOC corruption and the smuggling in May of P6.4 billion worth of shabu through the Manila port.

“The replacement of the bureau with two new bureaus (one for customs service and the other for security control) is no easy task. The complexity of the current system and the difficulty of the entire transition process can give rise to difficulties,” the panel said.

Thus, it said a two-year transition period would be needed and the President could do the job of Customs commissioner during such transition.

The committee chaired by Quirino Rep. Dakila Cua invoked the Constitution, which empowers Congress to grant the President emergency powers to carry out a declared national policy “in times of war or other national emergency.”

“The occurrence of the national emergency may be considered when the Philippines’ first line of defense has been compromised because of the bureau’s corruption and incompetence in protecting and securing our border from entry of large-scale contraband especially illegal drugs,” it said.

The recommendation of the Cua panel followed the call of the committee on dangerous drugs to replace the BOC with another agency and to privatize its “non-sovereign” functions.

The committee on dangerous drugs chaired by Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers called for replacing the Customs bureau with “a new revenue collection agency of government with different system of collection to avoid corruption and to increase revenues.”

The Barbers committee said there should be a system of “fixing a one-time payment of import/export fees that would include duties/taxes, storage, warehousing and other expenses related to importation/ exportation.”

The panel also called on all BOC officers to take a leave of absence to pave the way for a top-to-bottom revamp of the agency.

The two House committees faulted former commissioner Nicanor Faeldon and other BOC officials for the release of the P6.4-billion shabu shipment from China.

A team led by former intelligence chief Neil Estrella seized the contraband two days later.