United Filipino Consumers and Commuters (UFCC) national president Rodolfo Javellana Jr. was right when he said that the Bureau of Customs (BoC) under the current leadership of Commissioner Bienvenido Rubio should do its job and clamp down, hard and fast, on smugglers, be they members of the rich and ruling class or financially impaired fisherman who resort to smuggling to get by and sustain a living.

Without a doubt, a smuggler is a tax evader and an economic saboteur rolled into one. The first avoids paying his tax liability while the second undermines the economy. The acts of both are deliberate and focused on achieving a single end: personal profit regardless of the law.

Here in the Philippines, smuggling is the primary cause of the deficit in customs collections that affects the nation’s funds. It has adverse implications on foreign direct investment, plant expansion, jobs creation, revenue generation and fiscal sustainability.

As a Christian moralist, aside from all of the above, smuggling is also tantamount to plunder. It should not go unpunished.

It takes away from the government its rightful revenue share, limits the ability of Filipinos to benefit from better public services and superior infrastructure, and denies many Filipino workers the opportunity to be gainfully employed.

The biggest losers are the people and the administration’s reputation for good governance.

But then again, it would appear that smuggling this huge cannot go on without the protection of people in power, especially those in the customs bureau. As we see it, current government efforts to fight smuggling are on a backward spiral, sort of regressive regression.

Indeed the question is: Is the BoC losing the war against smuggling and other anomalies within it?

The assessment that smuggling continues to be widespread is shared by Javellana and his UFCC vanguards. Recently, UFCC staged a protest rally in front of the BoC main office in Port Area, Manila on the same day Rubio was celebrating his birthday.

Javellana and like-minded people were there to remind Rubio of his duties and responsibilities as head of the BoC.

Together with the UFCC, we do not see the need for a change of the entire system since this is not likely to happen anyway. What we need are a few good men who will do their jobs competently, honestly and with steadfastness.

This new breed of men should have the guts to at least resign from their posts if and when they continue to look the other way by being blind to corruption and other anomalies happening within the BoC under their noses.

Is Rubio one of this new breed of men? Time, and his performance, will tell.

Let us learn from the Gospel this Sunday as written by St. John, wherein the Lord spoke to His disciples about His commandments to them, the Law of God which He had brought and revealed to them in all of its truth, in its intention and purpose, that is to teach us how to love God and one another just as He has first loved all of us. God has loved us all from the very beginning and it was love that led Him to create all of us, so that we may share in the fullness of His love and grace, to enjoy forever the favor and true bliss in our existence with Him.

My greetings to Ma’am Mawie Aglipay, wife of General Edgar B. Aglipay on her birthday on 10 May, and also to Michael Edgar Yan Aglipay and Ginger Aglipay who also have a celebration tomorrow 6 May.