Downsizing is not exclusive to the private sector as about a third of the 5,000-strong workforce of the Bureau of Customs will lose their jobs this year in a government cost-cutting scheme.

Rommel Francisco, spokesman of the Bureau of Customs Employees? Association, said about 1,200 customs employees would be removed under the Rationalization Plan of Executive Order 366 that was signed five years ago.

?EO 366 or Rationalization Plan is a twin policy of Lateral Attrition Law that attacks our right to security of tenure. These twin policies are bitter solutions of the Arroyo administration when the country experienced fiscal crisis in 2004,? he said.

Of close to 700 employees notified, 446 are assigned at the Port of Manila, Manila International Container Port and the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Francisco said those who would get their walking papers include security guards, warehousemen and storekeepers.

Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales said certain positions had become redundant with the bureau?s automation and other innovative practices.

?As early as last year, we have been urging them to take their eligibility exams so they may be prioritized in case new positions open [otherwise] we will have no choice but to let them go because there will be no budget to fund their salaries.?

Francisco said rationalization was a form of mass layoff and the notices?providing options for employees who may be transferred to other agencies or avail of early retirement package?were only intended to sugarcoat the dismissals and pave the way to privatization of certain customs activites.

The all-out campaign against graft and corruption has led to the filing of cases against 103 officials and employees of the BoC and the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

Charged before the Office of the Ombudsman since 2003 were 68 customs officials and employees, 25 revenue officials and staff along with eight city and municipal treasurers. An employee of the Finance Department?s Central Management Information Office and another from the Cooperative Development Authority were also charged.

The government expects to save money out of the rationalization program aimed at improving the operational efficiency of the executive branch. Lawrence Agcaoili and Joel M. Zurbano