“Palagay ko naman we are addressing it, tingnan ninyo yung movement of people in Customs,” Aquino told reporters after the groundbreaking ceremony of the San Gabriel Power Plant Project in Sta. Rita, Batangas City.
He issued the statement after the group Federation of Philippine Industries said the government lost more than P1.33 trillion in revenues from 2002 to 2011 due to smuggling.
But Aquino said things are slowly changing since they started reshuffling officials within the BOC, which recently saw the resignation of Ruffy Biazon as its commissioner.
“What I’m trying to say is we pressed the restart button, parang sa computer,” the President said.
The personnel changes within the BOC began after Aquino, in his last State of the Nation Address, publicly called out the bureau for supposedly failing to curb smuggling operations in the country.
Since then, Aquino has tranferred those he feels are not “contributing to the [reform] efforts” to their mother unit, the Department of Finance.
Aquino recently appointed John “Sunny” Sevilla” as the new commissioner of the bureau, replacing Biazon, who stepped down after having been named respondent in a malversation case by the Department of Justice.
Aquino admitted he had to convince many appointees to transfer to BOC to help him initiate changes.
“Ang expectation is these people will carry out their faction. It’s not perfect, they have been there just a few months, but we do expect results that’s why we put in these particular people,” he said. — Kimberly Jane Tan/KBK, GMA News
