A Dying Agency in a Dying Government

A press release intended for distribution at the National Press Club today discussed problems at the Department of Finance’s Bureau of Customs – taunted to be one of the most corrupt agencies not only in the Philippines but in the world.

The customs bureau office of the chief district Acting Collector of Surigao occupied by Ms. Lilibeth Mangsal, is currently vacant according to a press statement that was emailed to this site and was supposed to be distributed at the NPC on Press Night tonight but failed to arrive on time:

PRESS RELEASE

Customs bureau Surigao chief post vacant

The customs bureau office of the chief district Acting Collector of Surigao occupied by Ms. Lilibeth Mangsal, is currently vacant. According to the report of Mr. Ramon Tulfo dated May 23, 2015, the collector allegedly committed serious graft and corruption by delaying the release of a ship, LCT Bulk Carrier M/V Century Summit 3, and its cargo since August 13, 2014.

Collector Mangsal refused to release the shipment because of a personal reason: the shipper dumped Mangsal’s nephew as the broker for the shipment.

As per report of Marlon Ramos, Philippine Daily Inquirer dated May 29, 2015, a mining company Century Summit Carrier Inc. filed criminal and administrative charges at the Ombudsman against Mangsal for alleged arbitrariness in refusing to release its shipment.

Century Summit accused Mangsal of violating Republic Act No. 3019, Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, for asking it to engage the services of her nephew as cargo broker.

Mangsal should also be held liable for violation of RA 6713, or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, for the “unjustified delay in the processing of the … shipment, her refusal to reply, as well as her neglect in the performance of specific duties mandated by law.”

As of June 7, 2015, allegedly Mansal has stopped reporting to her office at the Customs for days or weeks. Furthermore, Surigao locals purport that Mangsal is incredibly shamed by her own doing that everywhere in Surigao she cannot even afford to look at other people in the eye and all the time keeps her head down.

We call on government, Department of Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima and his Undersecretary Carlo A. Carag, the new Customs commissioner Albert Lina to appoint a new head of office for the Bureau of Customs Port of Surigao to allow business in that district to proceed as usual.

Without a formal replacement, decisionmaking and operations at that bureau’s station is severely affected and in turn it affects the revenue collections and destroys the goodwill with the clientele of government.

We believe any inaction on the part of the government places us all at a disadvantage and the lack of punitive measures against corrupt officials like Mangsal is extremely detrimental to the government’s transparency campaign, “MATUWID NA DAAN”.

An article about World War III and corruption in the Bureau of Customs states:

In the past, we rooted for the government to come clean with the then prevailing situation at the bureau where the smuggling syndicates are lording over everything taking place in that area.

The syndicate dictates upon the government not to install CCTV cameras, to deliberately sabotage the effectivity of the E2M process, not to use radio net inside the bureau of customs and to refrain from all other activities that will in any way inhibit, constrict, fend off, repel, thwart, stop, prevent or in any way lessen the power and intensity of the syndicate operations at all the Philippine ports (airport, maritime port, etc.)

In effect this situation portrays a government that lost its integrity. The members of the nuclear and the branches of the family of the fake figurehead sitting by the Pasig River, expect a direct regular take from this syndicate and are themselves deeply enmeshed with the activities of the syndicate. Read more from here…

We have a dying government and the people are suffering miserably.

Everyone of us has an obligation to do something, small or big, in our own way to end all the pain and the misery the entire country is going through.

We will answer to the future generations for our undoing so let us start moving now!

For comments and suggestions on this article, please write us at: qualitymodernizationreforms@gmail.com.

Related Articles:

Mon Tulfo on Surigao Port:  http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/693071/duterte-poe-tandem-unbeatable

Marlon Reyes: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/694511/firm-files-graft-case-vs-surigao-customs-exec#ixzz3bSAYnCT9

Gold Bars Smuggling in Surigao

Davao-Indonesia-Malaysia Oil Smuggling Pipeline

Smugglers charged n times, but still continue illegal activities

Competent Commissioner Exec forced by smugglers and politicians to resign

Resolving an Invisible Crisis

It is not bandied about, but there is a hidden crisis that has been lingering for a long, long time concerning the set policy and general behavior of the Philippine banking community to entrepreneurs in the country.
Right photo: Credit cards. Source: www.theguardian.com

Selective servicing is done by the banking industry, allowing only a meager few to avail of decent credit, while a lot of loose change is happily spread over a wide base by banks through the credit card system. The banks promote their credit cards and special incentives by making the card holder salivate at gifts and rewards to be obtained freely if and when the holder increases purchases.

A large number of law firms and collection agencies all over the country have benefited up to 45% commissions share for recovering long lost debts for credit card companies and banks. 

The question is, when all over the world especially in the US Army, people start shying away from using credit cards because it buries one in serious perpetuating debt burdens, more if you are not scion or heir to the tycoons in Forbes’ List, Philippine banks are obsessed with selling that product: the plastic money. 

And 99% of members of the Bankers’ Association of the Philippines are racing against each other in selling insurance and pension plans without letting the enterpreneur class to succeed. ( Please see source article here. )

However when it comes to slightly bigger credit, the bank will sit on the application of the borrower and not grant the loan if and when a small justification can be found. If the depositor and borrower is a billionaire or a drug lord, criminal with a sack of money and roomful of funds still waiting to be counted at his hideout, the response is quick and the banker can even cite the Holy Bible at Matthew 13:12: “They who have, therefore they shall be given more.”

Not necessarily a good way to do business but the banks have kept the policy close to their hearts and will never part with this ruthless way of dishing out rejection after rejection. Even the simple opening of a checking account is a complete hurdle if one is not rich or a criminal.

For eons the proliferation of fixers, in many banking institutions similar to those circulating among government offices and officials like Janet Napoles, Edwin Gardiola, Zaldy Co, have been victimizing bank clients or prospective clients. These fixers are a sick sight in banks and a horrible bane to Philippine banking.

A large number of these fixers will give their victims a line such as: “I am only teaching bank executive/bank officer the ropes. I know more banking than he/she does.” Many are stupid enough to fall for fixers, but what can the victims do?

Bank requirements are too restrictive and the length of time to process the transaction with a client is rationalized as “the least possible time to extend and release a loan is 30-45 days.” That is one dampener, and if it does not discourage businessmen right away the poor client will realize that 30-45 days processing can even go up to 365 days or more, if the constricting policy to take as many credentials and other documentary bona fides is not complied at soonest possible time.

To make things worse, bankers can essentially also be inutile especially if they don’t have the adequate stock knowledge with which to perform their jobs. So the client is placed on a hanger and awaits to be ironed when the plate gets hot, which it might never ever when there is no intelligence to power the device. Furthermore, according to Quest for Change:

In a world where there is no plus side to very small revenue or cash accumulation, bankers are inclined to accommodate rich clientele and Alvin Toffler’s dark characters who form the other side of the coin of that phenomenon in modern times that he calls rapid wealth creation: criminals, underworld, terrorists, drug kingpins and the like.

Extraordinary is a bank manager from Antipolo who declares, “from our subsidiary bank, if you have a transaction to settle with our mother bank, I can endorse you all the way so they will provide you all the assistance you need.” In the case of a bank manager of a large bank at V.A. Rufino St., Makati City, the lady manager says it is impossible to endorse a transaction or provide suggestion to the manager of another branch of the same bank. This Makati bank branch manager wants that all transactions must emanate only from her branch.

What will keep a bank manager from endorsing a client? And what will prevent the bank manager from Antipolo to continue to give positive, constructive aid to clients in linking up with other branches of his bank?

The manager from Antipolo is the epitome of the banker’s public service ethic. The manager from V.A. Rufino in Makati is distinctly the portrait of the imbecile banker.

More than 70% to 80% of bankers in the Philippines suffer from a dearth of knowledge and are extremely poor in intelligence as well as wanting in intellect. No one is to blame except their headquarters office and the kind of education bankers get from the Philippine educational system that cannot afford to teach the correct nuances and shades of meaning of banking jargon.

On the part of bank headquarters, the governing policy of their banking corporations are bereft of the desire to promote broader credit to the entrepreneur population. The hard and fast rules of KYC – Know Your Customer, is extremely distorted and warped so much so that even knowing the potential depositors are thieves, murderers, drug lords, gambling lords, possibly as well terrorists fronted for by their relatives and associates, the bank manager will happily endorse the opening of banking relationship with the criminal and proceed to service that enemy of the public.

Effectively, this makes banks Public Enemy, by association, as launderers of the funds of these members of the underworld. 

Indeed, the benefit of the bank accepting as much cash and other valuables from these shady characters is tremendous, at least there should be balancing acts on the part of bank management to add a redeeming value to their inclination to accommodate and protect criminal figures. 

Compounding the situation of refusal to give away assistance to clients, is the inability of bankers to fulfill their ultimate obligation to service the customer. In many foreign-to-local transactions, if the scheme utilized is new to the Philippine banker, the transaction becomes bogged down not be the absence of interest of the banker but by the lack of fingertip knowledge and second nature skill to attend to the needs of the client.

The Middle Ages Europe, the Wild Wild West all had bankers, but not as cold and unsympathetic to the public that they served. There was a time when bankers followed a strict oath to be as efficient and kind to patrons for they are the ones that keep them in business.

That oath did not specify to service only billionaires and criminals if that will yield the most profit; in fact, many old school bankers will not touch criminal money even with a 100-foot pole. But look at Janet Napoles, Zaldy Co, Edwin Gardiola, the thieving Senators and Congressmen, the bureaucrats who stash billions of money stolen from taxpayers, all have the best service from their bankers.

Ultimately, meaningful change should happen in the banking industry. While it is all right to keep taking deposits from and giving away loans to the likes of billionaires like Sy, Ayala, Tan, Gokongwei, among others, taking the deposits of criminals needs to be done with a conscience. And plowing back dirty money as in the case of major public funds thief like Edwin Gardiola, as loans to the Gardiola shell companies and the conglomerates of his protectors, is a mortal sin. Dirty money for big loans, while at the other side of the equation nothing is for the honest or the least criminally inclined small and medium scale entrepreneurs.

If there will be a law to accuse and indict third party individuals or institutions in the commission as well as the concealing of a crime, banks will be included in the indictments and many bankers will go to jail.

That is the extent of an unseen, invisible crisis, but the public will hardly be concerned, because it is difficult to discern with just the naked eye. Yet, the entrepreneur class is a class awaiting to be empowered. If the time comes when the lowly and middling business people form groups and lobby organizations, a lot of banks will be given a difficult time surviving in an increasingly cruel environment.