Ateneo educators back BOC's Guerrero amid smuggling allegations

A group of educators from the Ateneo de Manila University came in defense of Customs Commissioner Rey Leonardo “Jagger” Guerrero amid his alleged involvement in the wide-scale agriculture smuggling in the country.

Guerrero was among the personalities named in a Senate of the Whole Committee report as among the supposed protectors and smugglers of agricultural products in the Philippines. He has since denied the allegations.

“Recently, Com Jagger has been the target of corruption allegations which try to implicate him and his reform team. This, however, contradicts the generally held view by reform stakeholders—including academic and international development partners—that Comm Jagger is a straight arrow and a true reformist,” the Ateneo School of Government (ASOG) said.

“We cannot speak highly of President Duterte’s other appointees; but when it comes to Comm Jagger, we believe he pushed good governance in an agency that now performs better because of what he and his reform team has achieved, in partnership with many reform partners (including the Ateneo School of Government),” it added.

According to ASOG, Guerrero’s key programs at the Bureau of Customs (BOC),  including the “Transformation Program,” not only increased the agency’s revenues but also improved its trade facilitation.

This was reflected in the bureau’s collections under the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law, the group said, noting the government was able to get an additional P24.22 billion in revenues for 2020 and P201.2B in 2021.

“A time-release study shows that imports clearance processing time in 2020 was only 9.5 hours from its baseline of 2 days and 10 hours in 2019,” ASOG said.

“According to a 2021 UN global survey, the Philippines scored 86% in trade facilitation, a significant improvement from 65.6% and 69.9% in 2015 and 2017, respectively. Another contributory factor may be connected to BOC’s standardization of internal processes in relation to their ISO 9001 certification, albeit various units remain at various stages of compliance,” it added.

The ASOG further disclosed it had entered a joint project with the BOC in March 2020 to develop a three-point governance tool to help the bureau in its operation and tax collection efforts.

Dubbed as “BOC Governance Tool Suite” (BOC-GTS), the tools included a revenue forecasting model using the marginal propensity to import and a tractable summary matrix showing top revenue-generating import commodities, their corresponding valuation, and tax decomposition.

Also included is a matrix designed to flag transactions that violate thresholds set up by the BOC and detect anomalies at the transaction level.

“Overall these governance tools leverage data and evidence made publicly available by BOC officials in order to help advance reform in the BOC. This model of transparency and citizens’ participation in governance appears rare in our public sector—and we should encourage and build on it when and where we find it,” the ASOG said.

“The road ahead for the BOC is much more promising because of what Comm Jagger and colleagues helped to build. If we want continuity in reforms, then we have to better appreciate what has been built and on tops of this, invest in the further work necessary to secure and sustain good governance,” it added.

Several personalities involved in the said Senate committee report have rejected the claims including Navotas City Toby Tiangco and former Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Chief Eduardo Gongona.

Last week, Guerrero challenged the senators to file charges against him and other Customs officials if they have evidence to support the allegations. --KBK, GMA News