Recto says Duterte seeks P4.2-B for hiring of additional BOC personnel

Senator Ralph Recto on Saturday said President Rodrigo Duterte is requesting Congress to allot more than P4 billion to employ additional Bureau of Customs (BOC) personnel.

Recto said that aside from the P3.6 billion for the BOC's budget in 2018, the President is seeking for a separate P4.2 billion for a "special purpose fund in the budget for the recruitment of more personnel."

Recto said that in his budget message to lawmakers, Duterte said Malacañang "tucked in an additional P4.2 billion under the (Fiscal Year) 2018 Miscellaneous Personnel Benefits Fund (MPBF)" to finance the BOC restructuring and "fill up its more than 3,000 vacant positions, capacitate personnel, improve systems and modernize facilities."

Recto said he supports Duterte's request “if it is linked to reforms and measurable productivity goals."

“If BOC hires 1,000 and then spends P1.4 billion for their salaries, but if in return they will be able to collect, say, just 10 percent, or P16.5 billion of the taxes lost to smuggling, then it is a good return to investment,” the senator said.

"So kung ‘yung bagong empleyado na may sweldo na sabihin na natin P500,000, but will be able to yield tens of millions of pesos in additional revenue, bakit hindi,” he added.

The senator also pointed out that there were 3,233 vacant positions in the BOC that Duterte wanted filled, noting that out of 6, 264 authorized permanent positions, only 3,031 positions have been filled.

Recto said that with the resignation of some BOC employees, a new team should really be appointed.

“These must be competent and ethical people, knowledgeable of the intricacies and culture of Customs operations, because the country cannot afford OJTs on training wheels being appointed to such a crucial job,” the senator said.

Amid the present controversy and supposed corruption in the agency, Recto also reminded that the BOC is a "strategic agency" that funds public services.

“For 2017, BOC is tasked to collect P468 billion. On a daily basis, that would be P1.28 billion. Its collection quota is 20 percent of total government tax income,” he said.

“Thus it can be said that 20 percent of the total length of roads built, classrooms constructed, medicine bought, textbooks distributed, families given health insurance will be financed by BOC collections,” Recto added.

The BOC is in the middle of a controversy due to the P6.4 billion of shabu shipment from China.

Allegations of corruption within the bureau have also surface during hearings at the Senate and the House of Representatives on the shabu shipment discovered by the BOC after being informed by its counterparts in China. —Anna Felicia Bajo/ALG, GMA News