The Bureau of Customs (BOC) has relieved lawyer Arnel C. Alcaraz as officer in charge (OIC) of the Bureau’s Enforcement Group (EG), following President Duterte’s pronouncement that he wants corrupt officials out of the BOC.
Commissioner Nicanor E. Faeldon signed on Wednesday a customs order that relieves Alcaraz from his position and designated Isabelo A. Tibayan III as OIC for the Bureau’s EG.
Duterte announced on Tuesday that he wants a certain customs deputy official removed from office for alleged corrupt practices.
“We are assuming [that it was Alcaraz] because we have not received any other formal charges against the other deputy commissioners. So, since it was mentioned by the President, it is safe to assume that he was referring to him,” said lawyer Mandy M. Anderson, chief of staff of the BOC.
Alcaraz has been accused of alleged extortion activities. The BOC is currently working with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to gather the affidavit of the complainants and other evidence against him.
“We have not received any complaint against him. So we will be working hand in hand with the NBI to get whatever complaint was filed, and then we will initiate administrative investigation against him accordingly,” Anderson said.
Under Customs Personnel Order (CPO) B-45-2016, which was signed by the customs chief in August and which took effect immediately, five current customs officials were designated to hold positions as OICs for the five major groups in the BOC.
This includes Alcaraz as the OIC for the EG, Ma. Liza Sebastian as OIC for the Intelligence Group (IG), Arturo Lachica as OIC for the Internal Administration Group (AIG), Melita del Rosario for the Assessment and Operations Coordinating Group (AOCG), Marlon Melodias as OIC for the Revenue Collection Monitoring Group (RCMG) and Jaime Taborda as OIC of the Management Information System and Technology
Group (MISTG).
Meanwhile, the BOC has collected P4.619 million in duties and taxes from undervalued shipments in the last four months.
Faeldon said the additional duties and taxes came from 117 container vans with grossly undervalued imported goods.
The shipments were discovered in five major ports: Port of Manila (POM), Manila International Container Port (MICP), Port of Cebu (POC), Port of Cagayan de Oro (Poco) and Port of Davao (POD).
Based on the summary report made by the IG and the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS), Faeldon cited the following figures: MICP had 44 alerts on 83 container vans, the POM with 11 alerts on 15 container vans, the POCO had 13 alerts on 14 container vans, POC with three alerts on three container vans and the POD had two alerts on two container vans.
The report said the contents of the alerted shipments were correctly declared but were grossly undervalued, which led the BOC to charge the importers of the shipments with additional duties and taxes.
The container vans carried varying items ranging from pump parts, wastewater-treatment system, undergarments and ladies accessories, used copying machines, drilling equipment parts, cutting-wheel grinding stone and poultry-incubation equipment, among others.
Faeldon said the adoption of a stringent antismuggling policy, fiercely and effectively enforced by IG and CIIS, has exhibited rewarding and positive impact on his vision for a genuine change in the BOC.
“Maybe it is not the first time in BOC’s history that genuine commitment to the call of duty has prevailed over graft, but today, I saw the nobility among the ranks of the fine men and women of IG and CIIS with the challenge of rendering responsible public service. Keep it up,” Faeldon said.