Alberto Lina is new Customs chief

Bureau of Customs. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

FORMER Customs Commissioner Alberto “Bert” D. Lina will be back in his old post starting Friday to replace John Phillip P. Sevilla.

In an advisory sent via e-mail by the Bureau of Customs’ public information and assistance division, it said the turnover ceremony for the returning Customs chief was scheduled tomorrow, April 24, at 2:30 p.m.

Sevilla on Thursday told a press conference that he had resigned, citing that he cannot bear political pressures ahead of the 2016 elections.

Lina had served as head of the BOC during the Arroyo administration but he resigned in July 2005 together with nine other top government officials at the height of the “Hello Garci” scandal—earning them the moniker “Hyatt 10,” as they announced leaving their posts at the then Hyatt Regency Hotel in Manila.

To recall, then Finance chief Cesar V. Purisima was also among the “Hyatt 10,” and now again heads the DOF, which oversees the two biggest tax-collection agencies—the BOC and the Bureau of Internal Revenue.  AC