The decision of President Duterte for the AFP to take over the Bureau of Customs sets a dangerous precedent. It normalizes the unconstitutional act of granting the military civilian functions and power over civilian offices.
It is another one of Duterte’s populist moves designed to appeal to the prevailing frustration of the people with his own anemic response to the smuggling of billions of pesos of shabu. Duterte himself brought about the present state of corruption at the BOC by failing to stop shabu shipments at the very first instance. It started with the 6.4B peso shabu smuggling under then Customs Commissioner Nicanor Faeldon. This was followed by another 11B peso shipment under Isidro Lapeña.
Duterte now resorts to this populist gimmick to get himself out of the problem he himself created when he did not go after Faeldon, instead recycling him to the Office of Civil Defense and now to BuCor. He again tolerated the same incompetence and connivance at the BOC by recycling Lapeña to TESDA after another 11B shabu shipment slipped through.
Deploying the military to every conceivable crisis in the civilian bureaucracy is governance by gimmickry. It tells a lot about Duterte’s severely limited imagination in solving the country’s problems. His kneejerk response to ask the military to solve every problem of the country also reflects his predisposition to ultimately have a military junta take over the country.
Duterte’s belief that military rule is best for the country is borne out of his strongman style of governance. The limitations of this style become readily apparent when applied to complex social realities. This is shown in Duterte’s own frustration with his inability to accomplish anything in solving the perennial problems of corruption and criminality after almost halfway into his term. ###