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FINANCE
Secretary Margarito Teves said on Monday the Bureau of
Customs (BOC) and the Presidential Anti-Smuggling Group
(PASG) must enhance their cooperation and “move in the
same direction” to effectively curb smuggling in the
country and boost revenue collections.
Teves
made the statement after the command conference on
energy convened by President Arroyo at the Department of
Energy building in Taguig City, when asked to comment on
the reported rift between Customs Commissioner Napoleon
Morales and the PASG head, Undersecretary Antonio Villar
Jr.
On the
reported rift, Teves said: “I would rather put it this
way—rifts and cooperation can take place in an
organization, but even if there’s a rift, we have to
find a way to minimize it and enhance cooperation. We’d
like to avoid tension. The ideal situation is to work
together.”
Teves
said that the PASG, anyway, can focus on antismuggling
activities while the regular agency, the BoC, “can
focus on the collection of revenue and the customer
service part.”
The
finance chief said the BOC and the PASG “should work
together” because if they do not, it would be a “very
serious signal that things are not moving in the right
direction as far as meeting our targets is concerned.”
Teves
also said the DOF supports the PASG’s plan to file cases
against over 100 Customs officials and personnel.
“That’s
a policy that we will support. They said they are
gathering evidence, [preparing to] file cases,” he said,
adding that this could be done jointly with the Revenue
Integrity Protection Service (RIPS), the anticorruption
arm of the DOF.
On
Sunday Villar told reporters the PASG is building cases
against more than 100 Customs officials and employees
suspected of involvement in smuggling.
Villar
also said the President would not have created the PASG
if she was satisfied with how the BOC was addressing
smuggling in the country. |
