Manila: A decorated former military officer who led several coup attempts has been appointed by President Benigno Aquino to the customs bureau, an agency with a reputation as a bastion of corruption.

Former army brigadier Danilo Lim has been named by Aquino as the new deputy commissioner for intelligence of the Bureau of Customs (BoC).

The appointment came a day after the palace announced that former representative Rozzano Rufino ‘Ruffy' Biazon is taking over from customs commissioner Angelito Alvarez who resigned amid his inability to curb corruption.

A former army commando general, Lim, 56, will be at the vanguard of the battle against corruption at the country's ports. He said he will look into the existing intelligence gathering system of the BoC as he stressed its importance in battling illegal activities.

There have been reports about certain officials in the customs agency being in cahoots with shippers to carry out illegal activities that include smuggling and undervaluing cargoes that pass through the country's ports.

Revenue drain

According to reports, a total of 2,000 container vans have mysteriously vanished from the Port of Manila, resulting in the loss of hundreds of millions of pesos of revenues for the government and the possibility that illegal cargos, such as weapons, were able to slip into the country undetected.

"My instructions from the President is clear: Stop illegal activities, corruption and smuggling," Lim said. He said he will institute reforms in the customs intelligence gathering system to make it more reliable.

Aquino's party mates

As party mates of President Aquino, Lim and Biazon both ran for senator last year under the banner of the Liberal Party. Both lost in their bid.

A graduate of the US Military Academy at West Point, then Army scout rangers captain Lim led the 1989 coup bid against then president Corazon Aquino, the incumbent leader's mother.

Biazon's father, former senator Rodolfo Biazon, on the other hand, was credited with thwarting the attempted power grab by marshalling his troops to defend the armed forces headquarters of Camp Aquinaldo in suburban Quezon City.

The 1989 coup in Metro Manila was considered as the bloodiest of the coup attempts over the last two decades.