Reformist Customs chief resigns

CUSTOMS chief John Phillip Sevilla has resigned from his post, saying he does not want to see the agency turned into a “milking cow” by politicians as he admitted feeling “political pressures” as the 2016 presidential elections draw near.

Sevilla, who took on the helm on the Bureau of Customs in December 2013, also said that an influential religious group has been lobbying for the appointment of certain individuals to “very sensitive” posts in the agency.

“I am sad that I could not finish what I started,” said Sevilla, referring to the reforms he pushed to increase the bureau’s collections and minimize corruption.

“I did my best to improve the process in Customs to make it easier for legitimate importers, to reward good behavior and penalize bad behavior. This is a work in progress,” Sevilla added.

Well-placed sources said Sevilla’s main beef was the appointment of lawyer Teddy Raval, acting chief of the bureau’s Intellectual Property Rights Division, to the Enforcement and Security Service in charge of anti-smuggling operations. Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS) chief Jessie Dellosa was also reportedly opposed to Raval’s promotion. Sevilla also referred to “fund-raising activities” involving the bureau during election years.

“We are changing that, and I think we have done a lot to change that. Whether it is an election year or not, politician or not, corruption is wrong. Period. We should fight it,” he said. President Benigno Aquino III has appointedAir 21 president Alberto Lina, a close associate of Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, to replace Sevilla. Both Lina and Purisima are members of the “Hyatt 10” group of Cabinet officials who bolted the Arroyo administration at the height of the “Hello Garci” scandal.

Lina previously served as Custom’s chief for five months in 2005 before he resigned. For his part, Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. encouraged Sevilla to name the persons exerting political pressure on him.

“I think he should identify the people he claims are pressuring him and what these people want him to do. Since he has already resigned, he should tell all he knows to prevent a repetition of the political pressure he mentioned,” Marcos said.

“What does he mean when he is being told to do something in preparation for the election? What does it mean exactly? That because of the 2016 elections political pressure was exerted on him and by whom? I think when he referred to pressure, he was being asked to do something illegal. That would be important for the Justice Department to investigate,” the senator added.

The opposition United Nationalist Alliance also described Sevilla’s resignation as proof against the administration’s much trumpeted “daang matuwid” policy. “Theirs is not straight path. Instead there are signs that Sevilla could not stomach the twisted path of the administration,” UNA president and Navotas Rep. Tobias Tiangco said.

Tiangco accused the Liberal Party of being “a corruption machine working in the background and putting pressure on government appointees in sensitive positions, to milk the government coffers in the last two minutes of the Aquino administration and to contribute to its fundraising.”