Reforms under cloud as Customs chief quits

Visibly trying to contain his emotions, Customs Commissioner John Phillip P. Sevilla told reporters in a press conference at the bureau’s headquarters in Manila yesterday that he submitted his resignation letter to President Benigno S.C. Aquino III on Wednesday, one year and four months after he took over the bureau’s reins.

“I don’t want to use the word ‘irrevocable.’ It’s a resignation. I have resigned,” Mr. Sevilla said, adding in Filipino that his departure would take effect “when the President will have appointed a new commissioner.”

While a palace spokesman parried questions on Mr. Sevilla’s revelations on machinations within the bureau, Malacañang accepted his resignation, “effective immediately,” and saw fit to promptly name his successor: Alberto D. Lina — chairman of logistics service provider Airfreight 2100, Inc. (Air21) and himself a former Customs commissioner in the first few months of 2005 — who formally takes over this afternoon.

Mr. Sevilla’s announcement took business leaders by surprise, with John D. Forbes, senior adviser of the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines saying via text that the development came as a “shock,” and Makati Business Club Chairman Ramon R. Del Rosario, Jr. saying in a statement: “It is a sad day when principled professionals deem it untenable to stay in office.”

“The business sector expects the next commissioner to continue the reforms, but we are concerned that there are unexplained political motives involved which Commissioner Sevilla has referred to in his public statements,” Mr. Forbes said.

Of Mr. Lina, Mr. Forbes added: “He knows the bureau and now has a great opportunity to deepen the reforms of his predecessor.”

Speaking mostly in Filipino during his briefing, Mr. Sevilla cited growing pressures from unnamed interest groups — particularly in the appointment of personnel to key posts — as the main reason for his resignation.

“The atmosphere is clearly more political now. It is very evident that political factors lurk in the background,” said Mr. Sevilla, who took over in December 2013 from Rozzano Rufino “Ruffy” B. Biazon who, in turn, resigned amid allegations of involvement in the misuse of congressional funds.

“Since I started here, I did my best to remove political factors in running Customs,” Mr. Sevilla recalled.

“In recent months, it has become more and more difficult. In the coming months, it might become impossible,” he added.

“I’m just human. I have limits.”

He particularly recounted resistance to efforts to instill meritocracy in the bureaucracy, as well as not-so-subtle pressure from various parties — who all pointed to the politically influential Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) as the interested party — to support the appointment of Teddy Sandy S. Raval, currently chief of the bureau’s Intellectual Property Rights Division, to head the Enforcement and Security Service (ESS), a 400-man unit that polices ports.

“The ESS director… is a presidential appointee… So that is outside the positions we announce that are open to hiring,” Mr. Sevilla explained.

Saying none of those asking him — purportedly at the behest of INC — to support Mr. Raval’s new designation ever provided information on the latter’s qualifications and experience, Mr. Sevilla said: “I mean, naturally, that will raise suspicions: Why are they pushing hard? So I opposed the appointment and told them, ‘Look, I admit it’s within the President’s powers but I don’t agree that it’s a good idea.’”

“Very recently, I found out that there is a plan to proceed to appoint Atty. Raval as director of ESS in Customs.”

At the same time, he clarified that while “so many” of those pushing Mr. Raval’s appointment claimed he was INC’s choice, “I cannot be sure — and, actually, I do not want to believe — that they are the ones really pushing this.”

“But, consistently, all those pushing the appointment of Atty. Raval say the same thing and none of them gave a different reason for the appointment of Atty. Raval,” said Mr. Sevilla, who had once served with Goldman Sachs (Asia) LLC from 2000 to 2004 and global debt watcher Standard & Poor’s from 1993 to 1996.

“So, if I do not believe that it is Iglesia ni Cristo that is pushing this, then who is behind it? The fact is, I do not know.”

Neither Mr. Raval nor the INC was immediately available for comment.

Saying “reforms can still succeed in Customs,” Mr. Sevilla — under whose watch collections grew 21% to P369.28 billion last year from P304.54 billion in 2013 though still fell 10% short of a P408.1-billion target — said his successor should “do a better job than me, because I believe the straight and narrow path in Customs is at grave risk these days.”