Customs Commissioner Yogi Filemon Ruiz’s gentle, soft-spoken demeanor belies a spine of steel: The man is tough as nails when it comes to smugglers, criminals, and economic saboteurs.
“To the smugglers and would-be smugglers, stop doing what you do. If you are planning to smuggle, stop it because we will track you down and we are good at doing that,” he warned in an episode of Daily Tribune’s Straight Talk.
Traders have to do their business legally, he said, “because the funds you will pay the Bureau of Customs will go to the government and that will help provide better services to Filipinos.”
Ruiz knows whereof he speaks, since he used to head the BoC’s Enforcement and Security Services in 2017. As ESS chief, he was in charge of the Customs police.
He also served as regional director of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency in Central Visayas.
It was Ruiz’s former PDEA boss, Isidro Lapena, that brought him to the BoC.
Now as BoC head, he takes the lead in assessing and collecting customs revenues, curbing illicit trade and all forms of customs fraud, and facilitating trade through an efficient management system.
Making the BoC efficient within three years was a marching order he received from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
Once full digitalization is in place, the Customs operations will remove human contact, thus reducing interactions among brokers, importers, and Customs employees that have traditionally been the source of corrupt practices. The removal of discretion in Customs personnel will also eliminate the need for paperwork.
“Issuing certifications will have one portal through the National Single Window, where everything will be streamlined. All processes will be faster once we are 100-percent digitalized,” Ruiz said.
The Customs chief cited his predecessor Rey Leonardo Guerrero for initiating several systems that paved the way for the ongoing digitalization of the bureau.
Modernizing the system will immensely benefit the government and the economy, stressed Ruiz. “Once the operations are streamlined, there will be faster importation, a more efficient system, and we all know that an efficient system will generate more revenues,” he explained.
The goal of Ruiz is to digitalize bureau records to centralize all data for ease of check and balance.
Likewise, going digital will help the BoC track employees and personnel who are in cahoots with smugglers.
Full BoC automation may have to wait until 2024, however, since some Customs processes involve a third-party provider that has been caught in legal proceedings.
“Pending the resolution of that case, our hands are tied,” Ruiz said.
Still, as of end-2022, 155 out of 170 Customs processes have been automated.
The World Bank provided support to the BoC through $88.28 million in financing for its Philippine Customs Modernization Program. World Bank representatives led by Alexandre Hugo Laure recently toured local ports to observe various projects under the program.
Seven BoC pillars
Ruiz said the thrust under his term is embodied in seven principles: Zero tolerance for drug smugglers, curbing gun smuggling, eliminating illegal agricultural shipments, increasing revenue, digitalizing all BoC processes, boosting employee morale, and eradicating corruption.
As a former key PDEA official, he places particular emphasis on frustrating drug syndicates in slipping in illegal narcotics.
“We have been combating organized crime and narcotics smuggling for so many years now, and I am confident that we are making strides as we sustain improved border protection performance,” Ruiz said.
Some 34 personalities have been arrested and turned over to the PDEA through BoC’s efforts.
Digitalization and active collaboration with the PDEA and other local and foreign law enforcement agencies involved in the implementation and enforcement of anti-drug laws are playing a big part in the Bureau’s achievements against drug smuggling. Investing in additional new machines to detect contraband cleverly camouflaged and buried under legitimate imports, as well as conducting more coordinated intelligence-sharing arrangements between the BoC, drug enforcement agencies, local police, and their counterparts overseas, is boosting government efforts to combat the threat.
Under Ruiz’s watch, the Customs Operations Center, which monitors real-time examinations of shipments nationwide through advanced technology, was established.
The BoC also upgraded its intelligence capabilities by implementing the newly developed National Customs Intelligence System.
The drug menace “should be everybody’s concern, not just those directly or indirectly affected by it. The government remains persistent in its efforts to brainstorm solutions to the root causes of the problem, not only with various agencies but also with schools, communities, and families,” Ruiz said.
As one of the original graduates of the PDEA Academy, Ruiz said his training guides him to always attack the supply chain to prevent illegal drugs from landing on Philippine soil.
Addressing smuggling
Curbing smuggling, primarily of agricultural products, is another priority.
“With this administration, we can expect a more inclusive approach toward addressing this smuggling issue.”
“Smuggling means a huge loss in government revenues that could have been used to finance more roads, bridges, or schools or to help farmers deal with age-old problems like the high cost of feeds or fertilizer, transporting their produce to the markets, and having access to much-needed loans.”
Agricultural smuggling reduces farmers’ output and creates distortions in the prices of local products that result in reduced income, thus leading to the local industry losing competitiveness.
“An even more dangerous but often overlooked outcome is that the entry of these illegal farm products can pose a risk to public health and safety through pests and harmful chemicals sprayed on the same to ensure longer shelf life,” Ruiz said.
In 2016, two laws were passed to stamp out agricultural smuggling: Republic Act 10845 or the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act, which seeks to protect farmers from unscrupulous businessmen and importers by declaring large-scale smuggling as economic sabotage; and RA 10863 or the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act, which amended previous customs procedures and policies to strengthen measures meant to curb corruption at the BoC.
A total of 156 BoC seizures of agricultural products have been conducted since January 2022, with an estimated value of P2.244 billion.
The top products were onions (P763.513 million), assorted agricultural products (P572.471 million), and sugar (P313.454 million).
“We have already filed cases in court against several unscrupulous smugglers and won some of them,” Ruiz said.
Since Ruiz assumed his post in July 2022, regular consultation meetings with other government agencies have been held under a whole-of-government approach to address the pernicious problem of agricultural smuggling.
The progress of such collaboration among agencies will “hopefully be felt by our farmers and will redound to the protection of our local produce,” said the Customs chief.
Ruiz aims to surrender seized agricultural products as donations to Kadiwa stores to benefit the poor, and to other government agencies involved in relief operations, subject to regulatory inspections.
“If the concerned regulatory agencies can attest that these products are fit for human consumption, we will be happy to turn them over,” he said.
And a more inclusive, compassionate BoC is being realized, starting with easing the concerns of ordinary folks such as the distribution before the holiday season of balikbayan boxes from overseas Filipino workers that were stuck inside abandoned container vans.
“The BOC initiated this move to help OFWs and their families,” said Ruiz.
Record revenues
BoC is now targeting another record revenue collection of P921 billion for 2023. The goal is 2 percent higher than the P901.34 billion set by the Cabinet-level Development Budget Coordination Committee.
“We are ending the year with so much surplus,” Ruiz said. “This will redound to more projects, services, and infrastructure that the government can deliver.”
Clearly, thanks to the extraordinary work and steely determination of its current chief, the country is witnessing a brand-new Bureau of Customs. ±DTHS