The Collectors Association of the Philippines (CAP), a group of customs collectors of the Bureau of Customs (BOC), has expressed its support for customs commissioner Isidro Lapeña and its cooperation with his leadership.
The declaration of support and cooperation is contained in CAP’s Manifesto of Support, signed last December 15 and presented to Lapeña on December 22. The manifesto was signed by the association’s acting president, Atty. Ma. Lourdes Mangaoang, acting secretary general John Simon, and 45 other customs collectors.
In the manifesto, CAP said that “from the perspective of the Collectors Association and its members, in his short stint, or his 100 days in office, and after weathering the ‘eye of the storm’s fury and wrath’, we have witnessed and felt his kind of simple yet sincere and calming leadership and able hands, his dedication to his duties and functions, his indefatigable services, his action-oriented and pro-development perspectives, and foremost, his paternal shepherding with his earnest regard for the welfare and interest of the Bureau’s employees, mindful of the fact that the success of his job and mission, are not only in his hands, mind and heart, but in ours.”
CAP also commended Lapeña’s five-point priority program, which includes stopping corruption, increasing revenue collection, ensuring trade facilitation, stopping smuggling, and enhancing personnel welfare.
The group noted that the customs chief’s programs are “with the common denominator of his particular brand of leadership by example, with judicious, systematic, methodical and calibrated approaches, come as a ‘shot in the arm’, so to speak, to the historical and present-day malaise, that has engulfed the Bureau, with the end in view, not only of reforming the Bureau and awakening its collective conscience, but also changing the perception of the public and the stakeholders, and gaining [their] respect and admiration.”
Lapeña thanked CAP for its support for his administration.
“I am humbled by their support. At the same time, I am expecting them to help me bring change in the Bureau and that we all lead by example. The effort to rebuild not only the image of the BOC but to implement policy reforms is not the sole task of the Commissioner but everyone in the Bureau,” Lapeña said in a statement.
Lapeña, formerly head of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, was appointed customs chief by President Rodrigo Duterte last August after Nicanor Faeldon resigned as BOC commissioner amid congressional probe of the P6.4-billion illegal drug shipment that slipped past the customs bureau.
Image courtesy of hin255 at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
