Philippine Customs head resigns

Philippine President Benigno S. Aquino III has accepted the resignation of Customs Commissioner John Phillip Sevilla, officials said Thursday.

Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said the president thanked Sevilla for his exemplary leadership in implementing reforms in the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and for his dedicated service to the nation.

"Consistent with the President's mandate, the government is determined to pursue the reforms at the BOC and bring these to full fruition," he said.

Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, whose agency has supervision over the BOC, said that as head of the Customs Reform Team, Sevilla has helped grow the bureau's collections by 21 percent year on year in 2014 versus 5 percent in the pre-reform period.

He also said that the resigned Customs chief has transformed the agency "to be one of the most radically open and transparent agencies in government, has made government regulation more efficient for doing business in the country, and has taken great strides to thwart graft, technical and outright smuggling by filing cases, alert orders and seizures against erring importers, brokers, and officials."

Before he was appointed as BOC head in December 2013, Sevilla served for six years as undersecretary under two finance secretaries.