President Duterte has set eyes on the Bureau of Customs anew, saying that he will now go after 100 more personnel allegedly involved in corruption in the agency.
In a speech in Balanga City, Bataan Thursday, Duterte said that he originally had a list of 164 names of Customs personnel and most of them have been in the agency for more than 10 years.
“I was given a list of 164. They have been there already for 38 years, 15 years, 20 years, 25 years,” he said. “Sabi nung taong ma-acquit sana, an ex-employee of – sa Customs, ‘Itong mga tao na ito, Mayor, kung matanggal mo ito, mawawala ang corruption sa gobyerno’,” Duterte added.
Duterte placed on floating status 64 Customs personnel last July for their supposed involvement in corruption at the BoC.
The Chief Executive said that his next goal is the 100 remaining people in his list. “I’m still trying to look for these 100 idiots, these son of a b**** na wala talagang pahinga ang bayan,” he said.
Duterte had earlier said he does not want brokers at the BoC anymore since they are a source of corruption in the agency.
“Pagka may brokers, may corruption talaga ‘yan,” he said. “Take away the brokers and you would have cut corruption overnight. In a scale of one to 10, maybe you have reduced corruption to about eight – eight-and-one-half.”
Duterte said importers should just designate someone who will be accredited with the BoC and they should only be the ones allowed to go there. “You get an accreditation from the Customs collector. Ito ‘yung representative mo. Siya na ang maglakad. Siya na mismo,” he said.
The President had also earlier admitted that anyone would find it difficult to handle the BoC because of corruption. The BoC is led by Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero, a former Armed Forces of the Philippines Chief of Staff. (Argyll Cyrus B. Geducos)
