Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon yesterday disclosed that the bureau had busted a giant fuel company smuggling billion-worth of fuel into the country.
“I caught another big smuggler of fuel, I cannot divulge names yet,” Faeldon said during his speech at the American Chamber Philippine’s Infrastructure and Logistics Committee Meeting.
“It’s billion-worth of a fuel. It’s one of the biggest fuel companies in the country,” Faeldon added.
While withholding the identity of the fuel company, Faeldon said this is the reason why the Bureau of Customs (BoC) is being tagged as the most corrupt government agency in the country.
“If big corporations like Mighty and this fuel company defrauding the government or cheating it, how much more to the small workers of these importers?” Faeldon said.
Usually, it takes two to tango but for the Customs chief, it takes three to finally cleanse the bureau of corruption.
“It takes three to tango, you have the brokers, importers and you have the bureau people (to resolve the corruption in the Bureau of Customs),” he said.
The people of the bureau, Faeldon stressed, are not just the one making the image of BoC corrupt but also the traders.
“Everybody is trying to lessen their duties to the government,” he lamented.
Faeldon also wondered why not a single complaint has been filed against his men.
“There are 11,000 importers and brokers and you know until today, zero has come forward to me and tell me that your agent employee named Juan Dela Cruz is asking money from us. So I wonder why?” Faeldon asked.
He challenged traders to expose corrupt practices in the bureau, promising a reward to the first importer who can report to him any corrupt practices perpetrated by a BoC employee.
“If you want to cleanse the bureau, help me because no one can help me. I cannot just start shooting the bureau of customs people every day by mere suspicions that they are doing these. We have to prosecute them and bring them to court and I need you,” Faeldon pleaded. (BETHEENA UNITE)