Let us give President Aquino’s appointment of former congressman Rozanno Rufino Biazon as the new head of the Bureau of Customs the benefit of the doubt.
Shake the boat so the mice will jump to the sea. In other words, total cleansing is needed (morally, intellectually and spiritually). How to do this is a big challenge for the new commissioner.
I suggest he starts with the Entry Division of the Bureau of Customs, for that is where Customs people start robbing the Filipino people. Why is it that in other countries they have systems that can check irregularities? We can do it better here in the Philippines.
And why is it that our legislators are not keen on amending the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines, which is outdated and has become irrelevant in the changing times? Simply because their yayas, inaanak, katulong, kamaganak, and kulasisi are doing good business in the bureau. Some of them have brokerage and freight firms.
Commissioner Biazon, I pray that you will be lucky and succeed in introducing the much-needed reforms in the bureau. And I pray, too that former Brigadier General Danilo Lim will really clean this notorious bureau and will not resort to corrupt practices in order to raise political campaign money for the next senatorial election.
—ISIDRO C. VALENCIA, Building 33, Room 022, Bagong Lipunan Condominium, Taguig City