MANILA: The Bureau of Customs (BoC) is hiring new employees to fill up the more than 2,000 positions that were left vacant for years as a result of the past administrations’ rationalization policies and freeze on hiring.
The BOC spokesman, retired colonel Neil Anthony Estrella, disclosed on Wednesday that an initial of 1,366 vacant positions in the Customs central office and various collection districts across the country are open to interested applicants.
“We have the money [to fund the hiring of new employees or promotion of current employees],” Estrella told The ManilaTimes, saying that hiring of additional people is needed because of lack of manpower, particularly in offices performing important functions.
Aside from the hiring freeze implemented at the start of the past Aquino administration, there are other factors that contribute to the decimation of almost half of the original workforce of the Customs bureau. These are Executive Order (EO) 366, Republic Act (RA) 9335 or the Lateral Attrition Law and lifestyle check on Customs officials and employees.
EO 366, signed by then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2004, aimed to rationalize the bureaucracy by removing 30 percent of the 1.5 million government workforce.
RA 9335 lays out penalties and rewards against officials and employees of the BOC and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR). Under the measure, employees and officials may be terminated by a revenue performance evaluation board if he or she is proven to have committed negligence in his or her duty that caused the government to miss its revenue targets.
The lifestyle check was first implemented in 2005. It led to the dismissal from service of a number of officials and rank-and-file employees.
At present, Estrella said, the BOC has only more than 3,000 employees servicing the public in 17 collection districts nationwide from a high of almost 7,000 in previous years.
Estrella pointed out that the BOC as “ guardian of our borders” needs necessary personnel to cover and effectively carry out its mandate.
Open for hiring are 18 positions in the bureau’s Assessment and Operations Coordinating Group (AOCG), Enforcement Group (EG), 313; Internal Assessment Group (IAG), 10, Intelligence Group (IG), 64; Management Informational and System Technology Group (MISTG),7; Revenue Collection Monitoring Group (RCMG), 20; Manila International Container Port (MICP), 100; Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), 225; Port of Aparri, 6; Port of Batangas, 26; Port of Cebu, 31; Port of Cagayan de Oro, 36;
Port of Clark, 11; Port of Davao, 41; Port of Iloilo, 12; Port of Legazpi, 24; Port of Limay 23; Port of Manila, 301; Port of San Fernando, 13; Port of Subic, 8; Port of Surigao, 29; Port of Tacloban, 18; and Port of Zamboanga, 38.
Qualified next-in-rank BOC employees are automatically included in the selection line-up as candidates for promotion with their mother unit.
Others who may apply are Customs employees who are not next in rank or those who wish to apply for promotion or change of item number to a position outside of their mother organizational unit, as well as new graduates or non-BOC personnel.
Not qualified to apply are government employees who are due for compulsory retirement on or before June 2017 and new applicants with relative/s within the fourth civil degree of consanguinity or affinity who is/are currently employed in the Customs bureau.
