Galling

What did they lose? President Aquino’s spokesperson Edwin Lacierda is correct to challenge 27 recalcitrant Customs collectors with that question.

The collectors—named in reports as Rogel Gatchalian, Carlos So, Eduard de la Cuesta, Ricardo Belmonte, Adelina Molina, Ronnie Silvestre, Macabantug Mandangan, Priscilla Bauzon, Imelda Cruz, Ma. Sonia Togonon, Lilibeth Sandag, Raymond Ventura, Teresita Roque, Ma. Liza Torres, Maritess Martin, Arnel Alcaraz, Tomas Alcid, Ma. Lourdes Mangaoang, Francis Agustin Erpe, Rogelio Villagracia, Marieta Zamoranos, Juan Tan, Carmelita Talusan, Arefiles Carreon, Rustum Pacardo, Romalino Valdez, and Talek Pablo—were being transferred to the Department of Finance’s Customs Policy Research Office, which was created by Executive Order No. 140 to review tariff and customs administration policies. But apparently, such is the collectors’ fidelity to their jobs that 15 of them petitioned the Manila Regional Trial Court to issue a temporary restraining order on their transfer—and got it.

The petitioners’ contention was that the transfer order lacked due process and violated their statutory and constitutional right to security of tenure. The court initially issued a 72-hour TRO, which it subsequently extended by 17 days. “The primordial question that needed answer at this point in time is whether or not petitioners will suffer irreparable damage from the implementation of the Customs Personnel Order,” the court said.

“Irreparable damage”? But exactly what are the customs personnel being ordered to do? They are being reassigned to a new office to do mental work—research and policy formulation. The transfer, it was made clear, involved no demotion in rank or reduction in salary. As Lacierda pointed out, “You did not lose your status, you did not lose your rank, you were not demoted. So what did you lose? Why will you file a case?”

Indeed, what would motivate government bureaucrats to defy a simple administrative order giving them new responsibilities? Perhaps only the terrifying prospect of losing more than their desks in their old offices, where they have held petty court all these years. The Bureau of Customs being what it is, by all accounts among the most corrupt agencies of the government, it’s fairly easy to speculate on the potential “irreparable damage” to themselves these collectors are protesting against. They stand to lose the lucrative nature of their positions. The transfer will deprive them of some very tangible rewards they may have grown accustomed to in their work.

Take the case of Mangaoang, one of 15 senior collectors in Cebu’s customs office and among those granted a reprieve by the court from being transferred to the Customs Policy Research Office. Per reports, Mangaoang reclaimed her post as Cebu deputy collector for assessment and, inexplicably, also tried to assume the post of acting customs collector in the Cebu district. The woman desisted from pursuing what she wanted only after she was presented a copy of an order by Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon designating another lawyer and career officer as acting Cebu customs collector.

In his State of the Nation address last June, President Aquino excoriated the Bureau of Customs for the brazen, unabated corruption in its ranks. “Where do they get the gall?” he said.

That question bears repeating in the wake of the shameless behavior being exhibited by these customs collectors. Self-respecting people—especially in an agency as disreputable in the public estimation as Customs—would welcome the chance to prove that they have no undue interest in their position. Customs employees themselves had lamented the President’s disparagement of their organization. Unfair, they cried in a statement, saying that not all of them are rotten and that they work hard at their jobs. Where are these employees now, and why aren’t they assailing the refusal of their colleagues to give up apparently too-good-to-lose positions?

Five district collectors who did not join the 15 petitioners are said to have complied with their reassignments and are now reporting for work at the Customs Policy Research Office. Bully for them. And the bureau now has five new deputy collectors whom Biazon has touted as “up to the task and up to the challenge” of cleaning up the seeming equivalent of the Augean stables. Should we hold our breath? Let’s see them get cracking.