AFP’s ‘assistance’ to BOC personnel still ‘unconstitutional’ — lawyer

FILE: Bureau of Customs in Manila, Philippines (Photo By PhotoPhilia, CC BY-SA 3.0)

An official of Center for International Law (CenterLaw) on Wednesday, November 7, explained that even though the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) will just assist the Bureau of Customs (BOC) personnel, such move is still “unconstitutional.”

“Unconstitutional po ‘yan kasi nakalagay po sa Article 16 ng ating Saligang Batas, specifically sa Section 5 Paragraph 4 na (It is unconstitutional because stated in Article 16 of our Constitution, specifically in Section 5 Paragraph 4 that), ‘No member of the Armed Forces in the active service shall at any time be appointed or designated in any capacity to a civilian position in the government,'” lawyer Gilbert Andres, CenterLaw trustee, told GMA’s Balitanghali.

“So samakatuwid, kahit hindi na take over lang ‘yan, kahit mag-assist lang ‘yung AFP sa Bureau of Customs, labag pa rin sa Constitution, kasi ang sabi sa Constitution: in any capacity (So, therefore, even though it is not really a take over, although the AFP will just assist the Bureau of Customs, it still violates the Constitution because it stated: in any capacity),” he stressed.

Andres said this after President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday clarified that he did not instruct the military to take over the functions of the agency employees who were on a floating status.

“When I called in the Army to help the Bureau of Customs, there was no designation, there was no appointment and there was never an instruction for them to take over the functions of the employee,” Duterte said in a speech during his lecture on militarization and drugs in Malacañang.

The President explained that he placed the BOC staff on floating status as it will take him 10 years if he will be probing each of them for corruption.

He also added that unless law and order is established in the corruption-ridden agency, the presence of the military will remain there.

[READ: Duterte: No order for military to take over BOC personnel’s functions]

To recall, it was in October when the Chief Executive decided to put the BOC temporarily under military control, amid the billions of pesos worth of smuggled shabu (crystal meth) that slipped past the country’s ports.

He assigned Maritime Industry Authority (MARINA) Administrator Rey Leonardo Guerrero, former chief-of-staff of the AFP, to replace Isidro Lapeña, who is now the head the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), as the BOC’s chief.

The President said he ordered the AFP to take over the operations at the BOC to address issues of corruption and drug smuggling inside the agency.

In his first flag ceremony as the new BOC chief on Monday, Guerrero said fighting corruption and cleansing of corrupt officials in the bureau will be his “top priority.” He vowed that he will use “full extent” of his powers and authority to accomplish his mission as head of the BOC.