‘It’s a challenge, not a problem’—Comm. Yogi Ruiz

BUREAU of Customs (BOC) commissioner Yogi Filemon Ruiz is not deterred by the whooping increase that the country’s financial managers have placed on his shoulders in terms of the agency’s collection target for this year totaling more than P921 billion.

“To me, it is a not a problem but a challenge, a great challenge,” said the soft-spoken customs chief in a one-on-one talk with Pinoy Exposé at his office last Wednesday, January 11, 2023.

Ruiz accommodated this paper for a few minutes after meeting with the bureau’s district collectors during their traditional ‘New’ Year’s Call’ to the Commissioner of Customs.

Ruiz said his confidence stemmed partly from the timely release by Malacañan of Memorandum Circular (MC) No. 12 last December 29, 2022, that continued the service to the government of presidential appointees and other career-eligible officials at the Executive Branch who have not yet been replaced by Pres. Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Under MC No. 3 released by the Palace last July 27, 2022, the term of office of the above officials should have ended last December 31, 2022.

“That (MC 12) helped because it removed the anxiety of some of our officials and boosted their morale,” Ruiz said.

The country’s financial managers may have relied on the remarkable BOC collection performance in deciding to jack up its assigned target for this year due to its historic collection performance last year.

In 2022, the BOC actually collected P862.93 billion, upped by more than P141 billion from its assigned target of P721.52 billion.

Records show that as early as November, the BOC already exceeded its annual target after posting actual collection of P745.50 billion, a positive deviation equivalent to P23.98 billion.

November was also the second time that all the bureau’s 17 collection districts surpassed their assigned targets since August, the first full month of Ruiz as customs commissioner.

‘Micro-management’

The huge BOC target for this year prompted Ruiz to ‘micro-manage’ the performance of his district collectors, he admitted.

Showing a large monitor inside his office that details the real time hourly collection of each collection district, Ruiz said he immediately calls the attention of any district collector before the end of office hour if the data he is seeing is not to his liking.

On a daily basis, the BOC would have to collect an average of P3.7 billion if it is to meet its assigned target for this year, he stressed further.

Ruiz also expressed confidence that despite the ushering of the Chinese New Year this January 23 lasting until February 9, 2023, the BOC would still be able to register positive deviation in its collection effort. “I believe we would still be able to meet our revenue goal,” he said.

The ushering of the Chinese New Year celebration that results to the closure of many Chinese companies doing business in the Philippines for the duration of the occasion has long been considered as a “lean period” for the BOC as China is the biggest source of the country’s imports.

‘Strategic planning’

Further boosting the bureau’s confidence is the start this Thursday, January 12, 2023, of its “strategic planning” session at Clark, Pampanga, lasting through January 13, 2023.

Ruiz said the final session aims to chart the bureau’s “strategic direction” for the duration of the Marcos administration or until 2028.

He added that “preliminary sessions” were already held by the BOC last year where its future direction and goals were initially discussed.

“This will just be the culmination of all the preliminary sessions we held last December,” he bared further.

He also said he sees no major movement of the bureau’s district collectors, at least until next month with the retirement of Manila International Container Port (MICP) district collector, Arnoldo Famor.