Probe Sevilla’s Resignation

Senator Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III  is on the right track in calling for a Senate investigation on  the sudden resignation of John Philip Sevilla as Customs Commissioner.

That is if Sevilla himself will not disclose in detail what prompted him to throw in the towel after just a year in an agency  generally conceded to be one of the most corrupt in the Philippine bureaucracy.

Sevilla cited "political pressure" as the main reason for his resignation. However, the United Nationalist Opposition claimed that Sevilla's resignation was prompted by the demand by the ruling party to come up with P3 billion supposedly as war chest for the 2016 polls.

In other words, that the BOC was to be used as a milking cow to generate campaign funds. Not surprisingly, the Palace has denied that  any such order exists.

Sevilla later said in a TV interview that he resigned because Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima himself, along with three others, asked him to resign. Earlier, Purisima was even all praises for Sevilla's excellent performance in the latter's brief stint at the BOC. 

If Sevilla's claim that it was Purisima himself who told him in no uncertain  terms to hand in his resignation despite his "stellar performance" in the BOC, then there's something very wrong with the circumstances under which he resigned.

Thus, the "milking cow" allegation is not farfetched at all.

Sen. Pimentel should therefore pursue his plan to initiate an investigation on Sevilla's resignation as this would reveal whether the Aquino administration is in fact not serious in pursuing the "daang matuwid" as its claims, but only wants to perpetuate the ruling party in power.

What's wrong with this is that the ruling party would be using for partisan politics the taxes and duties paid to the government that should really be used for vital social services and infrastructure development.

Sevilla's revelations are very serious and should be fully investigated in the Senate. The bombshell unleashed by Sevilla gives administration critics yet another reason to doubt PNoy's avowed commitment to the daang matuwid and intensify calls for his resignation even as the 2016 polls is just around the corner. -end-