Selective will

We’ve heard this lament before. “Powerful forces,” according to Customs intelligence chief Danilo Lim, were major roadblocks in the anti-smuggling campaign of daang matuwid.

The inevitable question is why Lim did not blow the whistle on the powerful forces, whose interference, we can surmise, involved circumventing or directly breaking Customs laws.

Dealing with these powerful forces, Lim sighed, was tougher than staging a coup d’etat. All the coup adventures that Lim joined ended in failure, and it’s no surprise that he is also failing in this tougher challenge. The forces are so powerful, he said yesterday, that he refused to take the dare of lawmakers to name names. He said only that there were too many.

Lim’s outburst looks like his way of hitting back at President Aquino, whose worst criticism in last Monday’s State of the Nation Address was aimed at the Bureau of Customs. BOC personnel, P-Noy memorably said, “are trying to outdo each other’s incompetence.” He said the government estimates it is losing P200 billion to smuggling (I guess this is annual).

“Where do these people get the gall?” P-Noy asked. This was the official Palace translation. “Gall” sounded better in the actual speech, delivered entirely in Filipino: kapal ng mukha.

To show that they weren’t (as we like to translate literally) thick-faced, there followed a flurry of offers to resign, all revocable, first from BOC Commissioner Ruffy Biazon, and then Lim and the bureau’s administrative chief, Juan Lorenzo Tañada. As of yesterday, all three were still in their posts.

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In the first Aquino presidency, the coup attempts did achieve something for those out to seize power. The chronic destabilization launched by those dubbed the “coup pals” ensured that economic recovery after the Marcos dictatorship would not take off.

Lim was reinstated and even made commander of the First Scout Ranger Regiment by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. But he later turned against GMA, leading soldiers in taking over The Peninsula Manila hotel to demand her resignation.

He owes P-Noy big time for forgiving and forgetting his participation in one of the worst coup attempts against Cory Aquino, in 1989. P-Noy even appointed Lim to a post that is one of the most coveted by those who believe a government position is a sure path to fortune.

So Lim should be aware of how damaging his denunciation of the “powerful forces” can be for the daang matuwid administration, especially coming on the heels of corruption allegations in the Metro Rail Transit and the use of the pork barrel.

Even before Lim groused about powerful interference in his work, with no action from higher ups, certain foreign investors were already talking of the “selective political will” of daang matuwid in going after the corrupt, with zeal displayed only if the accused was identified with previous presidents particularly Arroyo.

P-Noy acknowledged that corruption persisted under his watch, and vowed that the next half of his term would focus on those who refuse to change their ways. He must show that he is just as relentless in going after his own people as he has been in his crusade against the forces of GMA. The credibility of his anti-corruption campaign is at stake.

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Criticism of Danny Lim, however, is also valid. Surely someone placed in charge of intelligence work at Customs didn’t expect a walk in the park. When a recent survey picked the Philippine National Police as the most corrupt agency, the joke of the day was that BOC personnel planned to file a protest.

P-Noy got it right in his SONA: those who can’t do their job should quit. Irrevocably.

The predicament of people like Lim and Tañada had been expressed by other individuals assigned to the BOC in the past. Every administration, bar none, had “powerful forces” calling the shots at Customs. The smuggling trail could lead all the way to the top, with one official so brazen a newly appointed Customs chief quit in less than a month. Someone assigned to head a task force intercepted a large shipment of motorcycles smuggled by a local political kingpin. The task force head was shunted to another post. Today the kingpin is still thriving, welcoming guests to his fiefdom with a recording of what in the movies is typically presented as the voice of God (who sounds, according to one bemused foreign visitor, like Charlton Heston).

Some of the coddlers of smugglers were openly denounced or became embroiled in scandals that were never resolved. Others went on to occupy high office, their cronies laundering smuggling proceeds with enormous success.

Lim’s open lament and recent scandals implicating P-Noy appointees or allies mark a turning point in the much-touted straight path or daang matuwid. This is where reality bites, showing the complexity of fighting corruption in this country. 

The scandals in fact began building up late last year at the Senate and continued during the election campaign, when several administration candidates were accused of the same offenses that kicked out Renato Corona as chief justice. People are watching the outcome of the official investigation of these cases.

P-Noy, who still needs the support of certain crooks in the next three years, will have to carefully pick his enemies.

How much corruption can he tolerate without denting the credibility of daang matuwid? His anti-corruption program should be able to survive accusations of a double standard.