Senator Leila De Lima criticised the impending militarisation of the Bureau of Customs (BoC), saying granting the military civilian functions and power over civilian offices sets a dangerous precedent.
De Lima said President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to the military to take over the BoC “is another populist move designed to appeal to the prevailing frustration of the people with his own anaemic response to the smuggling of billions of pesos of shabu.”
The detained senator maintained that Duterte himself brought about the present state of corruption at the Customs bureau by failing to stop shabu shipments at the very first instance. “It started with the P6.4bn peso shabu smuggling under then Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon. This was followed by another P11bn peso shipment under Isidro Lapena,” she said. “Duterte now resorts to this populist gimmick to get himself out of the problem he himself created when he did not go after Faeldon, instead recycling him to the Office of Civil Defence and now to Bureau of Corrections (BuCor). He again tolerated the same incompetence and connivance at the BoC by recycling Lapena to Tesda,” she added, referring to the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority.
De Lima described as “governance by gimmickry” Duterte’s tactic to deploy the military to solve problems in the civilian bureaucracy.
“Duterte’s belief that military rule is best for the country is borne out of his strongman style of governance. The limitations of this style become readily apparent when applied to complex social realities,” she said.
“This is shown in Duterte’s own frustration with his inability to accomplish anything in solving the perennial problems of corruption and criminality after almost halfway into his term,” she added.