Northern Samar 1st district Rep. Paul Daza felt compelled to warn the incoming Marcos administration Wednesday, June 1 about a certain group of power players in the Bureau of Customs (BOC) that could "sabotage".
In his privilege speech Wednesday--the last day of sessions in the outgoing 18th Congress--Daza said, “Good governance begins with choosing the best and the brightest—and this includes choosing the right ones for critical agencies such as the Bureau of Customs."
"We must be wary of certain personalities and groups that may have plans to ‘hostage’ the chances of our country," he said.
Daza continued: "There’s a so-called Samar group in the BOC—composed of insiders, brokers, and fixers. We’re giving Secretary Diokno advance warning not to allow these people to sabotage the lofty goals of the government and BOC especially now—when revenue generation is critical to the economy.”
The BOC, whether fairly or unfairly, has always been identified as among the most corrupt agencies in the bureaucracy. It doesn't matter which administration is in question.
Daza called on President-elect Bongbong Marcos and Vice President-elect Sara Duterte to continue choosing only the best and the brightest and include the BOC in their priorities for ‘cleansing.’
The solon also appealed to Secretary Diokno, saying, “Please don’t bring garbage anymore in the . Let’s listen to the people—linisin natin ang ating bakuran (let's clean our backyard), let’s take the garbage out. Huwag na po tayong magpasok ng basura (Let’s not allow garbage to enter).”
Incidentally, Marcos has yet to announce a nominee for the position of BOC chief.
Daza said that choosing the best ones for the job is critical to economic recovery, which is greatly reliant on efficiency in revenue collection.
“We cannot expect to achieve our revenue targets if the people in our revenue-generating agencies are garbage,” he added.