More on Golf and the Customs "Mordida"

My recent article on golf rules as it relates to life’s lessons triggered an active, and somewhat spirited, exchange of emails. One reader wondered whether, based on the report of cheating in golf, President Aquino III ought to withdraw the appointment of his nominee for Collector of Customs. Oh, if only we could get thru to P.Noy. The rationale for this proposed reversal is that if an individual can cheat in a game, the core values of which are honesty and integrity, should he be trusted with heading a bureau that is the very epitome of, and is unquestionably synonymous with, corruption and graft itself?

Another reader, responding to the supposition, expressed the view that we need to “get real” and not expect that the appointment be rescinded. The unexpressed conclusion from this reader is that the system is inextricably flawed and to expect that the right and honorable thing to take place is, frankly, utopian.

A third reader though provided the information that Angelito Alvarez comes from the freight forwarding community which deals daily with Customs on both the export and import side of the business. Much of the graft mullah, I believe, comes more from the import side’s brokers. The reader snickered intimating perhaps that Alvarez, thru his appointment by Aquino III as Customs Commissioner, is much like a fox given charge of the henhouse.

This observation sent me cruising down memory lane. In one of my past lives I managed the operations aspects of a major US forwarder at their Los Angeles branch. Part of my responsibilities took me to many locations around the world to address our global customers’ service and operations issues. This included setting up processes to expedite clearance of goods thru Customs in order to achieve “just in time” objectives which were crucial to our customers ability to meet their production timetables. So, I had to deal with Customs issues in many ports. The one port that I was advised to avoid and not waste my time on was Manila. We had an agent here who performed our Customs clearances and the word I got was that no process change could ever enhance clearance and delivery times unless bribes were paid. This was also the case in a couple of African countries.

In one of my business trips to Manila in 1997, former colleagues from PAL invited me to a 50th anniversary celebration dinner to mark the airline’s founding. At my table were Customs brokers and representatives of other forwarders. I found that to be an opportune time to get some feedback on how our competitors were doing in Manila. And the conversation, naturally, drifted into discussing conditions at Customs. In whispered tones, here’s what I got:

Bribes and graft at Philippine Customs, it was alleged, are in fact “institutionalized”. There is a monthly “retainer” that larger forwarders and brokerage companies allegedly pay to Customs brass just to be in “good standing” at the Bureau. Then there was the “per shipment” bribe that was necessary if one were ever to hope that clearance paperwork would move from one desk to the next. In some cases up to 10 signatures were reportedly required. The urgency with which the shipment needed to move determined, they said, the size of the bribe.

“What we do is pass the cost on to our customers by charging higher ‘service fees’, which are added to the taxes and other fees associated with the importation of these goods,” one of the confidants whispered.

“That is why”, he added, “our service fees here can be up to ten times that which is charged the same customers who have goods going to Europe or Singapore .”

And these fees of course are passed on to the final user of the goods and services, i.e. the Filipino people. Clearly, the mordida is hardly a victimless crime. It is not those often despised multinationals or rich fat Philippine merchants who get stiffed, ,it is Juan dela Cruz whose pockets are actually picked.

Will Alvarez indeed become that fox in charge of the chickens gobbling up all that bribe money, and, in the process deliver a fatal blow to Aquino III’s mantra of incorruptibility? Or will he use his knowledge of the surreptitious practices and thru honesty and industry eliminate the bribe taking culture at Customs? Will he give the country hope that this most vilified Bureau will turn a new leaf?

If he does the latter, then I’m sure we can persuade Sen. Vicente Sotto III to let the golf cheating incident slide by. And then again maybe not. Golfers are a stubborn lot.

ldq44@aol.com