‘Martilyo Gang’ to go after corrupt Customs personnel

How do you solve perennial corruption at the Bureau of Customs? Simply use a hammer, or martilyo in Filipino.

This is exactly what Commissioner Alexander Arevalo intends to do to fight corruption in his bureau. Arevalo briefed Camarines Sur Rep. Rolando Andaya Jr., who chairs the House appropriations committee, on the Customs bureau’s proposed budget for 2006.

The soldier-turned-tariff collector promised to end the "open drawer policy" of bureau personnel by "nailing their drawers shut."

He told Andaya and committee members that he is aware of numerous complaints from businessmen dealing with Customs that they have to insert bribes in drawers left open by bureau personnel before their documents are approved and cargoes released from the piers.

"We are aware of this problem. We are thinking of providing transparent desks, but this would cost much money. What we would do is assign a group to go port-to-port to nail the drawers shut so these remain locked and closed permanently," he said.

He said all Customs personnel, from top officials to the gate guards, would be affected.

Andaya welcomed Arevalo’s plan, describing it in jest as the "Martilyo Gang solution."

During the briefing, Rep. Ferjenel Biron of Iloilo narrated the ordeal of his foreigner-friend who he said had to "drop something into the open drawers of Customs personnel to get his papers moving."

Other committee members complained of difficulty getting even small imported items like a golf set out of the Customs zone. They said release of shipments requires even the signatures of gate guards, who also have their own open drawers.

Arevalo, a retired colonel who is a member of Philippine Military Academy Class ’83, assured the Andaya committee that he is undertaking reforms to expedite the release of shipments and fight corruption.

One reform he is planning is for businessmen to deal with Customs online, meaning through the Internet.

"Corruption will be minimized, if not eliminated, and efficiency increased if there will be no need for importers to go to our offices and meet with our people. If everything will be done online, there will be no need for those open drawers and the signatures of our people," he said. — Jess Diaz