Updated: Admin defends military take over of customs bureau amid accusations of unconstitutionality

Facade of the Bureau of Customs. Photo: ABS-CBN News.
Facade of the Bureau of Customs. Photo: ABS-CBN News.

The government today defended once again President Rodrigo Duterte’s decision for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to intervene at the Bureau of Customs (BOC), citing “state of lawlessness” as his reason, after critics called the president’s decision unconstitutional.

However, Salvador Panelo, the government’s spokesperson, also said the AFP’s arrival at the BOC is technically not a takeover. The AFP is only at the BOC to “intimidate” corrupt personnel.

On Sunday, Duterte announced that the AFP would temporarily “take over” the BOC, reported ABS-CBN News.

In a press briefing today, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said that the constitution gives the president the authority to deploy the AFP in case there was a state of “lawless violence.”

Panelo is referring to section 18 of the 1987 constitution which says that the president can call the armed forces in cases of “lawless violence, invasion or rebellion.”

He said allegations of corruption and drug smuggling that were hounding the BOC constitutes lawless violence, reported Manila Bulletin. 

He told the media: “If you can bring in hundreds of kilos of drugs, then there must something [gravely] wrong in that area and there is [a] state of lawlessness there. It violates the law, it violates the constitution. Now it endangers the security of our countrymen. Certainly, the President will have to do something about it.”

He added that the definition of violence is not just limited to physical conflict. He was quoted by Rappler saying: “It’s not just physical violence. You do violence to the constitution, you do violence to the law. That’s a state of lawlessness.”

Panelo also said that technically, the AFP’s arrival is not a takeover of the BOC because Duterte is not appointing any member of the AFP into any BOC position. The armed forces are just at the BOC to intimidate the personnel.

“These people will be there first to make their presence felt and hopefully intimidate those corrupt people there,” ABS-CBN News reported him saying.

This is contradictory to what Duterte said. He used the word “takeover” on Sunday, as reported by Rappler.

Rappler also reported that Panelo said on Monday that he expected the BOC’s personnel to help the military transition into their roles at the agency.

Panelo is defending the President’s decision as some critics have called it unconstitutional.

In an interview on the show Bandila sa DZMM, law professor Tony La Viña, former dean of the Ateneo School of Government said that what Duterte has done is an impeachable offense.

He said in Filipino and English: “It’s clear that it’s illegal, it’s clear that it’s unconstitutional. What the President did is an impeachable [offense] because it’s a culpable violation of the constitution.”

He added: “First, civilian authority should always be superior to military authority. Second, no soldier or official currently in service should be appointed or designated in any capacity to any civilian post. Third, you can’t just remove civilian officials without due process or a law.”

This was echoed by opposition Senator Risa Hontiveros who said that Duterte’s decision was an example of “backdoor dictatorship.”

In a statement, she also said the AFP can only be deployed to “suppress identified acts of violence (rebellion and lawless violence), which serve as a factual basis for the calling-out power.”

The BOC has been mired in a controversy since August after four empty magnetic lifters were found in Cavite, which the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) said might have been used to smuggle illegal drugs.

The BOC’s chief Isidro Lapeña denied that it was used as such, then later recanted his statement during a congressional hearing. Despite what has been perceived as his incompetence, Lapeña was appointed as the director general of the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), which Duterte called a promotion.



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