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All the
signs are pointing in one direction. These suggest that
Customs Commissioner Morales, based on his bureau’s huge
revenue-collection shortfall over the past 21 months,
may, sooner than you think, be among the first major
casualties of the Lateral Attrition Act of 2005.
Morales
has been the Bureau of Customs’ (BOC) top man for almost
three years now. Assuming the administration will apply
the attrition law without fear or favor, then Morales
has made himself eminently “attritable” or dispensable.
In 2007
the BOC was at least 7.5- percent, or P15.779-billion,
short of its collection goal of P224 billion for that
year.
The
7.5-percent deficit automatically qualified Morales to
be a candidate for the head-chopping block. If you go by
the provisions of the Lateral Attrition Act of 2005,
that is. What’s sad is that the BOC’s shortfall may be
actually much bigger than earlier supposed. The figure
could balloon to more than P18 billion—equivalent to
nearly 9 percent short of target—when the final audit is
done.
The
BOC’s collection performance for 2008, so far, has still
been far short of expectations, although there has been
a slight improvement in the collection performance of
the Port of Manila and the Manila International
Container Port.
Probably
sensing that his removal is only a matter of time,
Morales only last week quietly slipped out of the
country with his wife. He had left word that he would be
away for a month, ostensibly to visit his daughters in
the United States and Australia. He left with his wife,
Shirley Morales, deputy customs collector at the Ninoy
Aquino International Airport. The implication of the
couple’s departure was unmistakable—they were on
official leave with the full blessings of Malacañang,
which could mean the executive secretary, a close ally
of Morales, who is also a Batangueño.
His
sudden departure last week, of course, sparked all sorts
of speculations at the BOC and in business circles.
Importers, BOC employees, even kibitzers, talked
endlessly about Morales and his “numbered” days.
Had he
finally been given his walking papers? Not far-fetched,
some said. Otherwise, why would he suddenly leave for a
monthlong sabbatical with his wife? The BOC obviously
has a lot of catching up to do in its collections with
the year’s end only a few months away.
Even his
closest aides until the other day were grudgingly
conceding that strictly on the basis of the BOC’s
below-par revenue-collection record in 2007, their boss
had become “attritable” or dispensable.
The
business sector and the public at large, meanwhile, have
been criticizing Morales for having been utterly
ineffective in addressing the smuggling problem. During
his watch, all sorts of smuggling operations have only
become more rampant than ever.
What
added fuel to the speculation was Morales’s own
statement to the effect that he was willing to give back
to the government the P5.2-million bonus that the
Department of Finance and the Department of Budget and
Management had awarded to him for the bureau’s
“outstanding” collection performance in 2006. Morales’s
own statement implied that he himself might have felt
the P5.2-million prize was undeserved.
In 2006
the BOC supposedly exceeded its collection target by
some P2 billion. Under the lateral attrition law, the
bureau’s officials and employees were entitled to a
share of the excess collections. Some P534 million was
subsequently awarded to the BOC as its share under the
system of reward and punishment set forth by the law.
The
claim that the BOC had surpassed its 2006 revenue goal
was, however, later disputed by at least two senators
who charged that Morales included in his bureau’s
computations the noncash tax obligation of the National
Food Authority amounting to P10 billion and advance tax
payments by the oil companies amounting to P3 billion.
In short, they were saying Morales had effectively
overstated the BOC’s collections by P13 billion.
Incidentally, it was largely based on the BOC’s padded
2006 revenue record that Morales became a full-fledged
customs commissioner, or not merely an “acting” head.
All
these put together have only bolstered the case against
Morales, whose leadership at the BOC has been
consistently rated as nothing less than disappointing.
Only
yesterday, however, the waterfront crowd was jolted by
the news that Morales and his wife were suddenly back in
town! Nobody could say with certainty why Morales had
cut short his trip. The only explanation that sounded
plausible was that somebody big and powerful in the
President’s office must have summoned him back.
Still,
while nobody’s really sure when the anticipated shakeup
at the BOC will happen, the perception that Morales has
got to go remains unshaken whether he is in town or in
Timbuktu.
In fact,
even as we speak, I have it on good authority that
Malacañang is already vetting one of two possible
replacements for Morales.
To be
sure, many politicians have long been salivating for
Morales’s job. But there are fiscal goals to be met,
and, for crying out loud, the public is quite fed up
with all the corruption that has been going on at the
BOC.
One of
the two being vetted is definitely a shoo-in for the
job, which could be described as a Herculean one, since
it would involve a lot of cleaning up of this bureau’s
stinking “stables.”
This
particular candidate for customs commissioner is about
to retire from his present posting. He was only recently
commended by a Palace spokesman for declaring he would
readily take on any responsibility that President Arroyo
may see fit to entrust to him.
If he’s
the President’s choice, then there is a strong
possibility that he would be officially appointed by
October 1. That is my fearless forecast. Fearless,
because I’m never afraid to be proved wrong.
Omerta_bdc@yahoo.com |
