Customs Bureau shuffles top officials

There will be a second organizational shuffle at the Bureau of Customs this year, its head official said Wednesday, a day after announcing the first wave of shakeups on Tuesday. “We are now doing a re-configuration of our organizational structure, especially among our frontline officials, to re-position our district collectors where they can be most productive,” said Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon. “There will be a second wave [of reassignments]. There may be a review of their performance every two months," he added. Biazon did not say whether three top district collectors—Ricardo Belmonte at the Manila International Container Port (MICP); Rogel Gatchalian at the Port of Manila; and Carlos So at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA)—will be among those to be reassigned. Ma. Lourdes Mangaoang, the head of the BOC's X-Ray Inspection Project, has been reassigned to be district collector for Cagayan de Oro. Subic Port collector Mimel Talusan will take over for Mangaoang at the X-Ray project. The Office of the Commissioner's acting Chief of Staff Adelina Molina will be the new collector for Subic. Port of Cebu district collector lawyer Ronnie Silvestre and Port of Clark District Collector lawyer Edward De La Cuesta will exchange posts, returning Silvestre to his original assignment.  “We shall be closely monitoring the performance of frontline customs officials,” said Biazon. The shakeups are meant to help the Philippines' second largest revenue-collecting agency reach its collection target for 2013 of P394 billion. Even though it bettered its 2011 total by P24 billion, the bureau still missed its 2012 collection target of P347 billion by around P60 billion. — BM, GMA News