The Bureau of Customs said it is centralizing the process of releasing information to the media days after it drew flak over its plan to open balikbayan boxes of overseas Filipino workers in a bid to prevent smuggled goods from entering the country.
The BOC, however, quickly clarified that it was not trying to curtail press freedom even as a media group criticized what they described as a “gag order” on Customs officials.
“There’s no such thing as gag order. Measures are being undertaken to centralize processes, not curtail press freedom,” the bureau said in a statement issued on Saturday.
Commissioner Alberto Lina also appointed Belle Maestro as the bureau’s new public information chief, replacing Jay Crisostomo.
The National Press Club, however, insisted that Lina’s new policy ran counter to the Aquino administration’s “open data initiative” and transparency efforts.
“It is, by any measure, an attempt to muzzle, limit and restrict access by the media to report on matters of public concern especially in an agency that has always been perceived as the ‘most corrupt’ among all government agencies,” NPC president Joel Egco said.
“The new policy comes at the height of the many controversies that are hounding the bureau since Commissioner Lina became Customs chief last April such as the alleged rise in smuggling incidents and the brouhaha attending his mishandling of the balikbayan box issue that is now the subject of a Senate probe. The media can only view with suspicion his intention to limit media’s coverage of the bureau’s affairs,” he added.
Egco said the new policy smacks of an attempt to divert the attention of the public from the issues hounding the bureau.
“This new policy of Commissioner Lina should be seen as another threat to curtail media’s role as vanguards of our democracy. We therefore call on our colleagues covering the Customs beat to resist this latest assault on our right to report on matters of public interest,” he said.
