P-Noy's law of attrition

After several months it was first bruited about, the much-rumored removal from office of former Bureau of Customs commissioner Angelito Alvarez finally came true last week. From official pronouncements from Malacañang Palace, including public statements made no less by President Benigno “Noynoy”Aquino III, Alvarez was fired due to his purported poor performance or underperformance in office.

Since he assumed as Customs chief in June last year when the Aquino administration also first took office, the appointment of Alvarez was already mired in controversy. There was so much fuss over his purported “cheating” in a golf game when he was still in the private business sector. Alvarez was handpicked by Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima. Both knew each other very well since they worked together in the past at the SGV & Co. accounting firm.

However, it was obviously not enough to keep him at his post. When push came to shove, the trust and support he enjoyed from Purisima did not matter at all. As far as the appointing authority was concerned, P-Noy saw and believed Alvarez lost more than his golf balls in his failure to carry out the administration’s anti-smuggling campaign to the fullest extent.

P-Noy strongly took issue against Alvarez the reported “missing” containers that entered and passed through the Manila port and allegedly lost their way en route to the Batangas port for transshipment. Ironically, it was Alvarez who discovered the smuggling scheme after an audit trail he did. But no amount of explanation by Alvarez could save his skin and appease an angry P-Noy.

Alvarez reportedly earned the ire of P-Noy initially on the Allan Bigcas case involving the alleged theft of luxury vehicles from the United States that were smuggled through the country’s backdoor. But this case took place last year under the previous administration before Alvarez even stepped in as Customs chief.

But as we say, it’s now all water under the bridge as P-Noy had removed Alvarez and placed his own trusted people at the Customs bureau. The Chief Executive immediately installed into office former Muntinlupa City Congressman Rufino “Ruffy” Biazon as his new Customs commissioner and ex-Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim as deputy Customs commissioner.

Biazon and Lim both ran but lost under the Liberal Party (LP) senatorial slate of P-Noy in the May 2010 elections. Biazon is the son of former senator and now Muntinlupa City Rep. Rodolfo Biazon (LP). Lim, one of the accused in the failed “Magdalo” coup during the previous administration, has been tapped to use his military background to improve intelligence operations against smuggling and other fraudulent activities at the Customs bureau.

After being sworn into office last week, Biazon revealed to the media P-Noy’s marching orders to him were crystal clear – implement the law and curb smuggling, and in the process, raise much-needed funds for the government to keep the economy afloat.

For someone who seemed to be a square peg in a round hole, Biazon exuded confidence he could deliver the requirements imposed on him. Biazon is a medical technology graduate. Since he is neither an accountant nor a lawyer, Biazon must at least have a short learning curve to absorb the applicable laws in his job, in particular, the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines.

Biazon said he just gives a smile to people who question his competence and qualification for the job. Well and good that he has a pleasing personality. But his smile won’t do the job for him. In broad strokes, Biazon bared he has a plan how to curb the well-entrenched corruption at the Customs bureau and meet its revenue collection goal.

As one of the top five tax-collecting agencies of the government, the Customs bureau was tasked to collect P320 billion in revenues this year. Alvarez earlier had said the agency might only be able to collect P295 billion because of tariff reductions and fluctuations in the peso-dollar exchange rate. Revenue loss due to smuggling and corruption was presumably not included yet in his calculations.

For his below-par collection performance in office, Alvarez was the biggest casualty of the Attrition Law. Aside from the Bureau of Customs, the other agency covered by the Attrition Law is the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).

Under the Attrition Law – Biazon should know it very well since it was passed into law when he was still a congressman – Customs and BIR collectors must meet their monthly and year-to-year revenue targets and will be rewarded with financial incentives in accordance with this law. But the same law also provides punishment of dismissal at worse for those who miserably fail to meet the collection goals.

Before Alvarez, how many underperforming Customs and BIR collectors had suffered the consequences provided for under the Attrition Law? After Alvarez, will P-Noy fully apply the provisions of the Attrition Law on Biazon, too?

The forced resignation of Alvarez was the third major replacement in the original line-up of the Aquino administration. Saying he had already fulfilled his promise to help P-Noy in his first year of administration, Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) Secretary Jose de Jesus was the first Cabinet member to tender his courtesy resignation. P-Noy replaced him with his losing vice presidential running mate, ex-Sen. Mar Roxas II.

P-Noy is applying a different tack of attrition to his Cabinet. Ad-libbing in a recent speech, P-Noy complained that he had at least three Cabinet members who he avoided meeting because they always gave him problems and “headaches.

Feeling alluded to, Department of Tourism (DOT) Secretary Alberto Lim left the Aquino administration last month and retreated back to his private life. P-Noy’s campaign gimmick manager in last year’s presidential race, advertising executive Ramon Jimenez, was named as the new Tourism secretary.

As Customs chief, Alvarez was just a sub-Cabinet official. So the two other Cabinet members supposedly giving the President “headaches” are still in office. After he acted with dispatch on Lim’s resignation, is P-Noy ready to push the button on his law of attrition to fast mode for these two Cabinet officials?