Philippine Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon has sent a strongly worded message to agency employees, asking them to join him in reforming the agency and stopping corruption within 15 days or he will have no qualms resorting to extreme measures.
In a July 22 meeting, Faeldon gave some Bureau of Customs officials a choice to “stop it (corruption), stop everyone that you know is doing stupidity in this bureau.
“They have to stop corruption now because if (it) will persist, the Filipino people will applaud me if I have to kill them one by one.”
He added: “Do you think people will condemn me if I (start) killing these corrupt people here? No!”
In two memorandums dated July 19, Faeldon invited 54 BOC officials from the Intelligence Group, Enforcement Group-Enforcement and Security Service, and Formal Entry Division officers at the Port of Manila and Manila International Container Port, to a July 22 meeting to discuss the agency’s reform agenda.
Not all of the officials showed up, Faeldon told media in an interview after the meeting.
The BOC chief said the 54 personnel were randomly picked and “recommended by some people” to “deliver the message as (effectively) as possible.”
The message, he said, is that “corruption in the bureau must stop now, not tomorrow” as the practice has become “already unacceptable to the Filipino people.” He said corruption results in at least P300 million in daily losses to the government.
The customs chief said he appealed to these officials to stop corruption within 15 days, after which there will be a re-evaluation.
“I’ve given them a choice. It’s whether you join me, you lead the reform, or I will do it (apprehend them) myself,” he pointed out. He said that if an official is caught in the act of corruption and refuses to cooperate, “then you’ll be dead.”
But Faeldon said, “I’m sure, definitely, they want to choose the moral high ground of helping me curb corruption. But let us see.”
Asked how he would know that corruption at the bureau has stopped, Faeldon said “it will be the people who will tell us.” BOC will not be the one announcing the end of corruption, but the stakeholders who transact with the bureau, he said. – Roumina Pablo
