“I thank Commissioner Sunny Sevilla for his dedicated service and relentless pursuit of good governance in the Bureau of Customs. The numbers do not lie: as head of the Customs Reform Team, he has helped grow the Bureau’s collections by 21% year on year in 2014 versus 5% in the pre-reform period, transformed Customs 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. The Bureau of Customs is the most improved national government agency in terms of revenue collection last year, thanks in no small part to the person who led it.
Amid these results, I respect his well-discerned decision to resign. In a span of a year and half, he has shown us that what was then impossible is now possible. It is possible to hope that we can transform institutions, with uncompromising courage and integrity.
A product of Cornell and Princeton, Commissioner Sevilla has served the public well in his lengthy career in government. Even with his stellar record of 6 years as Undersecretary under 2 Secretaries of Finance in his belt, I think unleashing transformative reform in the Bureau of Customs will remain to be one of the pinnacles of his legacy in government. There is always a time when one has to rest and take leave: today is one such day for a fine public servant who has waged the good fight against corruption well.
I wish him all the best and I am confident that the foundations Commissioner Sevilla has built will allow a clear path of reform for whoever his appointed successor is. Commissioner Sevilla has set the bar extremely high: his successor will have big shoes to fill.