WHILE their elders in Malacañang slumbered, a group of fired-up youths sailed last weekend to Panatag shoal and succeeded in flying momentarily the Philippine flag over the traditional Filipino fishing ground 120 miles off Zambales that China seized in 2012.

With their wooden boat narrowly being rammed by the Chinese, Joy Ban-Eg — the leader of the Kalayaan Atin Ito group – jumped into the sea to swim to the shoal. Others followed her, broke through and managed to wave the Philippine and United Nations flags from the shoal.

The UN flag was to highlight the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea whose provision for a 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone is being violated by China although it is an UNCLOS signatory like the Philippines.

A witness to the lopsided sea patintero reported: “There were some pretty big ships with wide guns on them and there was a medium large boat, a Chinese Coast Guard boat, plus two speed boats and they blocked our path to Scarborough (Panatag) shoal. They looked like they were going to ram us by coming straight at us at a fairly decent amount of speed and then veering off at the last minute.”

It was a fitting celebration of the 118^th anniversary of the declaration of Philippine independence on June 12, 1898.

We are not sure if the audacious expedition was inspired by President-elect Rody Duterte’s fantasy, told during a presidential debate in April, of him riding a jet ski to a disputed Spratly island, planting the flag and challenging China to get it and him off.

While the KAI display of courage and patriotism has stirred many a Filipino heart, it may have disturbed (to put it mildly) any ongoing diplomatic move to resolve territorial issues with China. The Chinese might see it as a preview of similar untoward incidents occurring.

China may have given up on President Aquino, who has the talent for saying or doing something that grates the sensibilities of Chinese leaders – starting with his bungling of the hostage-taking of August 2010 at Rizal Park where eight tourists from Hong Kong were killed. Beijing may just be waiting for a new president (Duterte) to reset relations to a fresh start.

• Lina told to wait for new Customs boss

OOPS, not so fast! Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima in effect told Customs Commissioner Alberto Lina and his boys who reportedly tried to do a last-two-minutes rewrite of the rules at the Aduana to keep the advantage of favored clients even after they are gone.

Purisima directed Lina and other DoF officials to coordinate and clear all policy actions with his successor Finance Secretary-designate Carlos Dominguez.

To replace Lina, Duterte has chosen Marine Capt. Nicanor Faeldon. The officer said in a recent TV interview that he would stop corruption and improve efficiency at Customs within six months.

The directive covers the Development Budget Coordinating Committee executive technical board discussions on the deficit and other programmed amounts as well as working on comprehensive tax reform studies and implementing rules and regulations (IRR) being prepared by the department.

A special mention was on leaving to Dominguez and his team the review and approval of the IRRs of the recently-approved Customs Modernization and Tariff Act, the Tax Incentives Monitoring and Transparency Act, and the Microfinance NGOs Act.

The finance secretary stressed: “When we in the DoF say public service is a relay race, we mean it: we don’t drop the baton when our time is up only for the next team to start over. Operationalizing professionalism means that our job until the end of June is to make life as easy as possible for the incoming team to hit the ground running on Day One.

“We hope to give the incoming economic team all the information and resources they need to have an even more successful six years than we had. Their success is our success.”

Purisima and Dominguez had a one-on-one last May 20 followed by meetings between them and their teams. We wish other key Aquino officials took the same attitude instead of shredding incriminating documents in their soon-to-be-abandoned enclaves or rewriting the rules to favor themselves and their cronies.

• Customs rules rigged for favored clients?

THE PURISIMA directive raised questions among port stakeholders on the motives of Lina in rushing the one-day hearing last June 10 on the IRR of the new Customs Modernization and Tariff Act.

The IRR’s approval on short notice is widely seen as cementing two recent memoranda of Lina reportedly favoring some business interests, including his own freight forwarding business.

Getting wind of alleged maneuvers in rushing the CMTA’s IRR that would commit the Duterte administration to Lina’s business designs, Dominguez reportedly told Lina “not to tie the hands of the Duterte administration in implementing Customs reforms.”

Dominguez reportedly told Lina: “Obviously I cannot tell you what to do, or what not to do, but I’ll tell you, I’ll look at it very badly if you tie my hands or (incoming Customs Commissioner Nicanor) Faeldon’s hands. If he cannot do certain things, there’s going to be hell to pay.”

President Aquino signed the CMTA just last week. It seeks to introduce changes in Customs operations, such as in the electronic processing of shipment documents, streamlining of export and import procedures, simplifying processes for seizure and disposition of illegal goods, and imposing stiff penalties for violations.

Dominguez reportedly brought his concerns about Lina to Purisima, who then issued a directive to clear all policy actions of outgoing officials with the incoming administration, including the approval of the CMTA’s IRR.

Port stakeholders noted that the notice for the June 10 (Friday) public hearing was sent out only on June 6 (Monday) after 5 p.m., with an attached copy of the CMTA but without the draft IRR. The hearing was, however, held for only a day instead of two.

Position papers on the CMTA, which is composed of 1,805 sections, were required to be submitted on June 8, which meant that the review of the CMTA was limited to less than 48 hours. The draft IRR, consisting of more than 150 pages, was distributed only on June 9 (Thursday).