In truth, former mutineer and now former Customs commissioner Nicanor Faeldon would still remain at his post were it not for that P6.4 billion worth of smuggled drugs that went through under his watch early this year.
After all, corruption in the Philippine Customs agency had been rampant since God knows when. Corruption in fact is quite rampant in every customs agency in most parts of the world that even the late Singaporean dictator Lee Kuan Yew admitted that he was unable to eradicate corruption in that country’s customs office.
Unless the customs operations are fully automated with machines in charge — and that possibility happening in the Philippines is about as remote as the country hosting the next Olympic Games or producing the first manned space flight or finding a cure for cancer — there will always be corruption at the Bureau of Customs (BOC).
What can realistically be achieved is reduced corruption or corruption to a degree that is relatively insignificant enough that it doesn’t affect the country’s revenue and the BOC can be considered trustworthy enough by both the domestic exporters and the importers from around the world.
Alas, it had to be illegal drugs that had to be smuggled through Customs — illegal drugs, the eradication of which is the centerpiece of the Duterte administration — and it had to be the Chinese government that alerted the Philippine government about the presence of illegal drugs being shipped through the country.
Needless to say what followed was the unraveling of the BOC led by Faeldon and the opening of cans of worms that ate through whatever claims of integrity he made along with whatever reforms he may have initiated in trying to cleanse arguably the most corrupt agency in the government bureaucracy.
While he made a promising start with the appointment of some qualified personnel like Cebuana lawyer Mandy Therese Anderson, who had the misfortune of facing charges of falsification for signing the attendance sheets of former basketball players whose qualifications were questioned by the public.
The Cebu connection doesn’t end there and in fact goes all the way back to Customs District Collector Elvira Cruz, who is accused by Sen. Panfilo Lacson along with Faeldon of receiving bribes from smugglers, and Tuburan Mayor Democrito Diamante who strongly denied being among the bribe givers mentioned by Sen. Lacson.
The congressional probe succeeded in stoking public furor over the corruption committed into the multi-billion drug smuggling case but when public indignation dies down as is often the case, what next?
Short of enforcing draconian measures to keep Customs personnel in check, corruption will continue unless a major overhaul from the ground up is undertaken.
If they cannot stop the drug smuggling from within prison, how can government stop the smuggling of illegal drugs in the country?
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