NEWLY appointed Bureau of Customs Deputy Commissioner Danny Lim will ask President Benigno Aquino 3rd to increase the agency’s intelligence fund in a bid to step up its fight against smuggling activities.
Ret. Army Gen. Danny Lim, a defeated candidate of the President’s senatorial lineup in last year’s elections, told reporters that the bureau’s “intelligence fund is insufficient.”
“There is really a need for me to raise the intelligence fund issue before the President and incoming Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon,” Lim said.
Of the bureau’s P1.7 billion total budget for the year, merely P4.5 million was allotted for the intelligence and confidential activities.
For next year, the BOC’s proposed budget stands at P2.56 billion. Its intelligence fund was kept at P4.5 billion. As a graduate of the US Military Academy, Lim said that information, data gathering and communications are critical aspects to preempt illegal activities like smuggling.
The new Customs official also favors retaining an existing policy of reshuffling personnel regularly.
“There is logic in the order,” he said.
