FINANCE Secretary Carlos Dominguez III on Wednesday fired a Customs deputy commissioner shortly after President Rodrigo Duterte ordered a crackdown on corruption in the ranks of the bureau.
A new Deputy Commissioner for Enforcement, Isabelo Tibayan, was named to replace Arnel Alcaraz who was accused of corruption by a group of businessmen, according to the Customs Public Information and Assistance Division
“There is only an OIC-Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence. Intelligence ba ‘yun? Intelligence. There’s only an OIC right now. But a new OIC will be appointed actually today,” Dominguez said in a Palace press briefing.
BoC and the National Bureau of Investigation are conducting a joint probe of the graft case against Alcaraz, the division said.
President Duterte, shortly after visiting his parent’s grave, said that he wanted a deputy at the Bureau of Customs sacked for alleged corrupt practices.
The President said he wanted the Customs deputy for intelligence suspended and removed from the agency.
“I have yet to talk to Col. Faeldon, but I have instructed my aide to relay. I want him suspended immediately… suspended and out immediately. If he does not want to leave Customs, I will force him out,” the President said.
Duterte added that pending investigation, he wants the Customs deputy to be removed from office.
“Gusto ko, totoo man o hindi, tanggalin mo muna at imbestigahan… I want them immediately taken out of the office,” Duterte said.
The bureau, which traditionally accounts for a fifth of state revenues, had consistently fallen below its collection target which was down two percent from previous year as of the first quarter.
Customs collected P90.5 billion as of March, lower than P92.3 billion raised in the same period last year, Treasury data showed.
The bureau’s tag of being “most corrupt” came from a survey of Social Weather Stations in August last year where it was rated a “very bad” -55 by businessmen. This followed a “bad” grade in 2012 and “execrable” ratings from 2005 to 2009.
Dominguez cited the need to start “from the top” to rid these agencies of corruption.
“If the source of the river is dirty, people will be dirty. It has to start at the top. Do not accept bribes. I think the leadership factor is important,” he said.
Dominguez urged lawmakers to loosen up strict bank secrecy and privacy laws to allow the government to catch corrupt officials.
“We will ask legislature to please loosen up, allow the government to look into the bank accounts of people suspected of corruption, tax evasion and crimes like that,” Dominguez said.
“We have to be smart in catching corrupt people. You cannot always catch them by playing cops and robbers. You have to go by checking their lifestyle, bank accounts, how much do they own.”
“Part of our legislative agenda is to make sure the privacy laws on bank accounts allow govt to look into bank accounts of people who have very strong evidence of corruption,” he added.
To achieve government spending targets, Dominguez also instructed Customs chief Nicanor Faeldon and Internal Revenue chief Caesar Dulay to “collect more” to help in meeting revenue targets.