President-elect Benigno “Noynoy" Aquino III said on Wednesday that he has already started the fight against corruption he consistently vowed to undertake during his campaign by cracking down on the country’s most “notorious" smugglers.
In a one-on-one interview with GMA News’ Jessica Soho, Aquino said he and his legal team are already in the process of compiling names of these smugglers and pieces of evidence against them.
This page requires a higher version browser “Meron na ho tayong list of smugglers na notorious. Kino-compile na po ang mga ebidensya laban sa kanila. Inutusan na rin po natin ang ating legal panels," he said in the interview.
(We already have a list of notorious smugglers. Evidence against them is already being compiled. We already gave the order to our legal panels.) Aquino, who ran with the campaign slogan “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap (If there's no corruption, there would be no poverty)," said the crackdown on smugglers would only be the beginning of his anti-corruption drive. “Kailangan po ng magsasample, hindi lamang sa smugglers kundi sa marami pang iba," he said
(We need to set an example, not only in the case of smugglers but others as well.)
Aquino, along with winning vice-presidential candidate Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay, were officially proclaimed by Congress as the country’s top two government officials on Wednesday afternoon.
During the presidential campaigns, Aquino said he will crackdown on smuggling and tax evasion to solve the country’s ballooning budget deficit. Aquino has said he will take this step first before considering any increase in the current tax rates. - Andreo C. Calonzo, RJAB Jr./JV
