Conflict of interest

Bert Lina owns a number of companies, among them Air 21, Air Freight 2100, LG Logistics and 2100 Customs Brokers Inc., etc. All of these companies transact business with Customs daily. Now he is Commissioner of Customs again.

This is Bert’s second try at being the top dog at Customs. The first time was during the term of former President Arroyo. But he abruptly left his post when the so-called Hyatt 10 group of senior Arroyo Cabinet members walked out on her.

What boggles the mind is how two Presidents, Arroyo and her student, P-Noy failed to see something very basically wrong with the appointment: conflict of interest. Common sense tells you that Bert’s line of business is in direct conflict of interest with the government job he just got appointed to.

What happens to his business while he is playing Customs Commissioner? Ideally, he should sell everything to an unrelated third party. But that’s not going to happen. What they usually do is put everything in a so-called “blind trust” which in practice is anything but blind.

I heard Abi Valte say on television news that Bert is divesting ownership of his companies. I find it hard to believe Bert will do that for real because Bert has invested so much on these companies. These companies are his life work. Why divest or lose control with only about 13 months left? I am curious to see how his lawyers will create that legal fiction of supposed divestment.

Indeed, it didn’t seem Bert really divested the first time around. He went back to work at the helm of his companies the day he walked out. Bert responded to my text message assuring me he will divest according to law. He has 60 days to divest now but however they may try to explain it, his businesses will simply get an unfair advantage over every competitor. There goes Bert’s talk about a level playing field.

This is worse than regulatory capture. It is a direct take over of Customs by a private business it is regulating.

Why would Bert want to take on this headache of an assignment at his age? He loves his country, he said and he wants to give back. But there must be other ways of doing this that doesn’t raise questions of propriety.

This conflict of interest will diminish the ability of Bert to clean up Customs or pursue the reforms initiated by his resigned predecessor, Sunny Sevilla. Those adversely affected by anything he does can simply say Bert is a competitor kasi.

Sunny Sevilla already said he resigned because of pressures from INC and Malacañang. He also insinuated that Customs will be used for political fund raising. That puts Bert in a defensive position to prove Sunny wrong.

Bert would be under very minute scrutiny in a way that’s going to put a heavy burden on his sanity and health. A highly skeptical public already believes Bert was offered the job because he is more willing to do the dirty things Sunny wouldn’t do.

The situation is so unfair to Bert but then again, he said yes to the appointment. There is no way he can get out of this experience with his reputation unscathed. He needs this job like he needs a samurai to slit his throat. But that’s what he just did… he committed reputational hara kiri.

Sunny

Why would a Goldman Sachs investment banker want to work for government and accept the job of Customs Commissioner?

Whatever might have motivated Sunny Sevilla has now been replaced by frustration with the system. Sunny gave it his all but unfortunately, the Princeton-educated technocrat didn’t get the total backing of his superiors.

Finance Sec. Cesar Purisima said he and Sunny disagreed 90 percent of the time. Cesar justified allowing politics to greatly influence the Customs job because, he said, we are a democracy. That’s a perverted view of what Daang Matuwid suggested to all of us. It is a wonder Sunny lasted as long as he did.

But Sunny’s short stint at Customs was not in vain. He was able to show what a Commissioner who is determined to clean shop can do. Sunny is as close to a monk as we can have. He did try to put the fear of eternal damnation into the hearts of the hardened characters at Customs who consider corruption their way of life.

Here is a comment I got from a businessman who transacts with Customs: “From our long experience in the steel industry, Sevilla is the cleanest, most efficient and competent commissioner we’ve had in a long time. He managed to bring smuggling down to a more reasonable trickle and was responsive to the concerns of various industries.”

Indeed, there is a book on Customs written by Iris Gonzales, one of our more insightful business reporters, which explained why even the security guards benefit from the culture of corruption… they call it kalakaran.

Despite the challenging environment, it seems Customs under Sunny didn’t do too badly. The Bureau posted revenues of P38 billion for the month of December 2014, higher by 60.3 percent compared with 2013. Cash Collection rose by 14 percent despite the 61.4-percent decline in the value of crude and petroleum products due to fall in oil price.

Customs also sustained its double digit growth for the whole year of 2014. Final report from the Bureau of the Treasury posted BOC revenues of P369.314 billion from January to December, up 21.1 percent versus 2013 total collection. The ports of Batangas, Iloilo, Cebu, Cagayan de Oro, Davao, Subic and Aparri exceeded their collection target for the year 2014.

These accomplishments happened despite lack of infrastructure and customs personnel to take in the volume increase. In Batangas, the PPA and the port operator only built the Designated Examination Area a few months ago. Prior to this, the port had no proper area to do 100-percent physical examination of questionable shipments.

Peace and order problems also made work more difficult. In Batangas for instance, they had to deal with crime kingpins that severely affect the entry of goods and makes businesses reluctant to use the port.

There was a time when a Customs official refused to sign an Alert Order for a smuggled shipment of garlic. The official told his superiors to just file a complaint of insubordination against him, because his life and that of his children’s would be in danger if he acts on the smuggled garlic.

But Sunny did the best he can to deliver on his mandates. He rightfully expected his superiors to back him up when political pressures escalate. He promised his staff that they will abide with the merit system in the matter of promotions and assignments. When he thought he could no longer keep that promise, he just opted to resign.

It is unfortunate that the P-Noy watch is degenerating into our worse nightmares of the Arroyo era characterized by political accommodations. The funniest news item I saw on television the night of Sunny’s resignation was about Butch Abad and Jun Abaya saying the Liberal Party will not use Customs to raise funds for the party, contrary to Sunny’s suspicions. Hahaha!

P-Noy is really self destructing… First, P-Noy conjures an excuse to remove a competent Health Secretary so he can put in a politician now that Health has a rich budget, thanks to the sin tax. Then Sweepstakes got a politician as head and now a technocrat Customs Chief resigns under political pressure…

Of course they are fund raising for the 2016 election. But why would P-Noy, who is retiring from politics, allow his Liberal partymates to ruin his reputation by giving in to politics as usual?

It isn’t easy for government to attract a decent person like Sunny who has made Daang Matuwid credible. It is tragic that P-Noy lost someone like him so close to the homestretch for the reason Sunny cited. P-Noy and the Liberals have lost the moral high ground to sell a supposedly honest Mar Roxas against an allegedly corrupt Jojo Binay because the Liberals are no strangers to corrupt politics.

I don’t know if P-Noy has lost his moral compass and has become a hostage of the trapos in the Liberal Party. Maybe it is time for P-Noy to go back to the convent of the Pink Sisters in Cebu for a thorough soul searching and pray for a return of the moral compass we thought his mother entrusted to him.

Our people must be reassured that we shouldn’t give up on our country with the daily headlines getting more discouraging each day. P-Noy must show he has not sold out to the dark side after he tasted power in 2010. Isn’t there anyone among his close aides who has the moral stamina, the intelligence and the guts to save P-Noy from himself and do the country a patriotic favor?