PRESIDENT Duterte on Monday night told Customs chief Leonardo Guerrero to “shape up” as he ordered a reshuffle of the Bureau of Customs (BoC) amid continued allegations of corruption and rampant drug smuggling activities in the country.
The President, in his weekly “Talk to the People” forum, said there was a time that Guerrero had been too trusting and relied more on the agency’s “old hands,” who, unfortunately, have been dragged in past irregularities in the bureau.
“Sinabi ko sa kanya (Guerrero) straight, drug is still flowing inside the country sa Customs.
Sabi ko, gusto ko sana sabihin kanina na, hindi ba naghingi man iyan siya ng baril? Sabi ko, ‘I approved the purchase of firearms and until now wala ka napatay ni isa?’ So sabi ko sa kanya, ‘shape up’ (I told him straight, drug is still flowing inside the country through Customs. I said, I wanted to tell him earlier ‘you asked for guns? I approved it’. I said ‘I approved the purchase of firearms and until now you have not killed even one?’ So I just told him to shape up),” he said.
He added that he also told Guerrero and newly appointed PhilHealth president Dante Gierran that he wanted a reshuffle in their respective agencies.
Duterte also mentioned that he wants a reshuffle at the National Bureau of Investigation but Sen. Christopher Go clarified that the President wants the revamp only at the BoC and PhilHealth.
Go also said that the President wants personnel, especially those who have refused to leave their posts, to report to him in Malacañang.
“I called Jagger, Guerrero here, ‘Commissioner’, I said, ‘I want to see a reshuffle of the different regional offices within the next two or three days.’ That goes for the NBI and PhilHealth,” the President said.
Duterte said the longer a person stays in one post, “the element of familiarity always enters the picture. That’s what complicates things.”
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the meeting between the President and Guererro before the discussion with the select members of the Cabinet and the Inter-agency Task Force for the Management of the Emerging Infectious Diseases happened on Monday night. He said he was not privy to the meeting.
In June last year, the President relived 64 BoC personnel due to alleged corruption. All those kicked out were asked to report to Malacañang while investigations were being conducted against them.
Billions of pesos worth of illegal drugs have been suspected to have passed through the BoC.
In May 2018, former Customs chief Nicanor Faeldon was dragged into the smuggling of P6.4 billion worth of shabu that slipped through BoC inspection. Faeldon was sacked and replaced by former police Isidro Lapeña.
Lapeña, too, was removed from the BoC after P11 billion worth of shabu placed in metal cylinder lifters were smuggled into the country also through the Manila ports. Lapeña was transferred to the Technical Educations and Skills Development Authority.
