Memo alleged as basis for BOC story doesn’t exist

This refers to the news article titled “Customs take declining, says DOF exec” (News, 7/14/14), reported by Jerry E. Esplanada.

The article attributes to me, as undersecretary of the Department of Finance, the authorship of a supposed confidential memorandum dated July 1, 2014, addressed to the finance secretary regarding the declining collections in the Bureau of Customs (BOC). Esplanada even stated that the Inquirer had obtained a copy of the memorandum, and quoted statements from the same as statements coming from me.

To set the record straight, there is no such memorandum written by me addressed to the finance secretary.

There is a report, coming from four officials of the Customs Policy Research Office (CPRO), on the same subject, but in no case should the contents of this report be taken as my statements. This report is clearly signed by the officials involved, and if this is the same report the Inquirer supposedly obtained, then it should have been equally clear that I was not involved in the writing thereof. To report and attribute statements to anyone else but the authors thereof is not only irresponsible journalism but appears to be a deliberate attempt to mislead the reading public.

The fact is, the data and analysis in that report are still being verified by the BOC, with initial indications as early as now that certain assumptions were wrong, necessarily making certain conclusions arrived at similarly erroneous.

All appropriate actions that the Inquirer may take in view of the foregoing shall be

appreciated.

—CARLO A. CARAG, undersecretary,

Department of Finance

After Charo Logarta-Lagamon, chief of the Bureau of Customs’ Public Information and

Assistance Division, called me on July 15, clarifying that four district collectors, who had been transferred to the Customs Policy Research Office, prepared the report and submitted the same to Secretary Cesar Purisima through Undersecretary Carag, and that the figures in the report were still being reviewed, I promptly made the necessary corrections in my July 16 report, titled “Customs disputes leaked report on falling collections.” My sincerest apologies to Undersecretary Carag for the error and for  unintentionally putting him on the spot.

—JERRY E. ESPLANADA,

reporter, Inquirer