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Friday, November 19, 2004
Ferrer: They're cracking the whip at Customs!
By Ed Ferrer
BoardSword
NEWLY installed Bureau of Customs (BOC) Commissioner George Jereos has been designated too as the Anti-Smuggling Czar--by no less than President Arroyo lately. Now, he is cracking the whip at the graft-ridden bureau.
Arroyo has clothed Jereos will full powers to go after large-scale smugglers, and charge them with economic sabotage.
The first official business he did was to compile a list of some of the 200 large-scale importers and consignees suspected to be involved in technical smuggling.
Custom deputy commissioner Ray Allas, a Pangasinense and an old hand in the BOC, has extended all the needed support to his Boss, being new in the saddle. He drew up the list, and there were the product of extensive investigations conducted by Intelligence and Enforcement Group (IEG) of the BOC. These were based in records of seized goods and shipments that were found to be grossly undervalued or misdeclared.
The list will be submitted to Arroyo. The BOC for its part has withheld the names on the list pending the filing of formal charges against them with the Department of Justice (DOJ). They are preparing an airtight case, so the smugglers can be held without bail and bear the consequences of say, life imprisonment if convicted.
By some estimates, the country loses at least P175-billion annually due to smuggling--an amount that is almost equal to the projected deficit of about P200-billion for this year.
The country's P2.011-trillion debt was accumulated by the national government since 1997 up to 2003. And worse, 43 percent of these colossal debt--or P865-billion was due to borrowings to finance the deficit.
To search one's imagination, let me use the current one peso coins to illustrate my point how big is the current national debt.
Our national debt when spilled in P1-peso coins could b likened to a ribbon that can soar and encircle all the stars in heaven, the Milkyway and still ricochet here in the Philippines. Whattahell!!!
In view of the above, the government is determined to pin down bigtime smugglers, operating in the country. GMA issued the stern warning: "Economic saboteurs must pay the price for the pain they are inflicting upon the people. Smugglers have defrauded the government, burdened with a burgeoning budget, deficit, of much-needed revenue," she said.
The President earlier ordered Jereos to come out with an "order of battle," a list naming the most notorious smugglers.
"Setting up an order of battle for smugglers puts tem in the same league as kidnappers and drug lords. Bigtime smugglers will not only be identified and prosecuted, they will be brought to jail," she stressed.
Arroyo noted that, "a steep price will have to be paid for sabotaging our economy at a time when national survival is at stake."
Arroyo warned in August that fiscal reforms, from tax bills and cost-cutting measures, must be instituted within the next two years or the Philippines would find itself deep in a fiscal crisis similar to Argentina, which defaulted on its public debt in 2001 due to a huge budget deficit and staggering amount of debts.
The BOC is a front-line services branch of the government. It's one of the income-generating branches of the government. It s tasked to come up with the much-needed revenues to shore up our sagging economy.
Hence, the whiplash at the BOC!
(November 19, 2004 issue)
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