TO a community accustomed to seeing people outstanding in their ordinariness coming into and going out of high office in the government, the resignation a few days ago of Customs Commissioner John Philip P. Sevilla is tinged with sadness. For, as it turns out, Sevilla was anything but ordinary. He was a man of technical competence and moral integrity.
The Bureau of Customs (BOC) is almost synonymous with corruption in the Philippine government. Past administrations have tried to clean it up, but their efforts had been unavailing. On his appointment to head the bureau in December 2013, Sevilla vowed to raise the technical and moral caliber of the agency. He was on the way to success.
In his 15 months in office, Sevilla made all import transactions public by posting them on the bureau’s web site, and set up a public database of frequently imported goods to make it easier to spot irregularities. He investigated his staff, suspended permits of some companies and brokers, and clamped down on the release of illegal rice shipments.
Customs collection, which accounts for 20 percent of government revenue, rose 21 percent last year. Collection this year is expected to grow by a smaller rate due mainly to the fall in the price of oil.
Sevilla’s resignation was prompted by political pressure over key appointments in the bureau of people not technically competent for the jobs in question. Rather than succumb to external demands, he preferred to hand in his resignation. He also refused to submit to the old practice of making the bureau a milking cow of politicians prior to elections.
Sevilla was a former Finance Undersecretary and Goldman Sachs Executive in Hong Kong. He completed his bachelor’s degree in Economics and Government at Cornel University and his master’s degree in Public Affairs at Princeton University.
Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima gave Sevilla profuse thanks “for his exemplary leadership for implementing reforms in the BOC and for his dedicated service to the nation.”
Another word of appreciation came from the Samahan ng Industrya at Agrikultura (SINA) that said that, for the first time, SINA was given by the commissioner regular access to vital information in the bureau related to importation and that its members “are saddened by this development and are apprehensive that his resignation may derail the common objective of the BOC and the agriculture industry to combat smuggling [of agricultural products from various countries].”
President Aquino accepted the resignation and designated businessman Albert D. Lina to take over the position.
The acceptance was prompt. Could not a few words of support for his resistance to political pressure, refusal to allow the bureau to become a milking cow of politicians, and contribution to the campaign against graft and corruption in government have persuaded Sevilla to stay on, perhaps to the end of the President’s term in June 2016?
The words were not forthcoming.
Image credits: Jimbo Albano