Customs to shuffle personnel in a bid to improve collection

MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Customs (BoC) is set to implement a revamp Wednesday in a bid to improve and boost revenue collection efforts in the remaining months of the year. Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales said the revamp, which was approved by Finance Secretary Margarito Teves, will affect at least 11 customs officials including heads of several major ports in the country. Among the major ports that are to be affected by the revamp were the Manila International Container Port (MICP), the Port San Fernando, Clark and Batangas. The other district collection ports to be affected by the revamp are the Ports of Zamboanga, Davao and Limay in Bataan, which is a sub-port of Port of Manila (POM). Based on Customs personnel order B-175-2008, District Collector for the Port of Batangas, Grace Caringal, will be reassigned to the office of the customs commissioner. Caringal will be replaced in an acting capacity at the premier country's port by District Collector Juan Tan from the Port of Davao, who has consistently maintained a positive performance in the past months. Morales said the movement of personnel was based on the performances of the concerned officials for first five months of the year and for the year 2007. "Under the law, non-performing assets will be moved to a lesser sensitive position. In the case of Caringal, she has been a non performing asset for the past year or so," he said. Considered as one of the major ports in the country, the Port of Batangas, which caters to bulks shipments, a huge percentage of them were oil imports, has one of the highest collection targets among the 15 ports nationwide. Ronnie Silvestre, the acting District Collector for the Port of Clark, will be transferred to the Port of Davao to replace Tan. Silvestre will be replaced by Collector Eduardo dela Cuesta from the Office of the Commissioner. To be reshuffled also were Zamboanga Acting Collector Tomas Alcid, who will be transferred to the Port of San Fernando replacing Acting Port Collector Edward Baltazar. Baltazar will be reassigned as the acting collector for the subport of Limay in Bataan replacing Collector Federico Bulanghagi who was demoted as deputy collector for the subport of Limay. Special Assistant Rodolfo Campos of the Customs Intelligence and Enforcement Group (IEG) was named as the Acting District Collector of the Port of Zamboanga. Also, Office of the Commissioner chief of staff, lawyer James Enriquez, will become deputy collector for operations at the Port of Manila (PoM). MICP Deputy Collector for Operations Napoleon Gatmaitan, meanwhile, was redesignated at the office of the district collector in the same port, and lawyer Lilibeth Sandag, special assistant at the Office of the Commissioner, has been promoted to replace Enriquez as chief of staff. Morales expressed optimism that with the revamp the bureau could erase the P2.857-billion deficit incurred during the first five months of the year and sustain positive performance in the remaining months. - GMANews.TV