Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, July 22)— President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday sought for lawmaker’s help and cooperation in solving corruption issues in the Bureau of Customs (BOC).
Duterte, in his fourth State of the Nation Address on Monday, bared that a total of 63 Customs employees and officials are currently facing criminal charges.
The chief executive said that while authorities cannot “abolish” these positions due to the security of tenure, then he would have to assign the erring employees somewhere else.
“I hope that I can have the cooperation of Congress. If we cannot abolish their positions, and if I cannot dismiss them for the reason that there is a security of tenure, I will just allow them to have their plantilla positions but they have to report to Congress every day to help me in the huge paperwork that we have to do every day,” Duterte said in his speech.
“All of them have to go out from the premises of the Customs area. I do not want them back,” he added.
Duterte earlier this month said he will fire dozens of Customs officials—who have yet to be named– for their supposed involvement in corruption. Malacañang on Friday said the administration has been preparing administrative cases against the said employees, but reiterated that they will be given due process.
The President, in his speech, stressed that there will be no “sacred cows” in his administration.
“Bureau of Customs, though corruption-ridden, managed to collect P585 billion in 2018. Imagine how much more could have been collected had the BOC been clean and less corrupt,” Duterte noted.
