Mangaoang: Probe aims to drive me from Cebu

Customs district collector Maria Lourdes Mangaoang believes that the lifestyle check implemented against her is part of the demolition job to have her relieved from her post.

She said that some people who are vying for her position might have financed the investigation to ensure her ouster.

Among those interested in her post, she said, are Customs collectors Grace Karingal, who is based in Manila, and Andy Salvacion, who is assigned in Davao.

Mangaoang also suspected that Customs Enforcement Security Service chief Nestorio Gualberto has a hand in the conspiracy since he wants to get back at her.

She said she caused the suspension of Gualberto's special assistant, Anna Maglasang, when she was assigned in Cagayan de Oro City because of some irregularities.

Gualberto and Mangaoang also had a recent encounter when the former created a task force to investigate the fire that hit the Customs warehouse at the Cebu International Port several months ago.

Mangaoang criticized Gualberto for creating the task force without coordinating with her and without authority from the Customs commissioner.

Although the district collector welcomed the lifestyle check, she was apprehensive that some Department of Finance officials would only use it for extortion.

In fact, Mangaoang said a member of the DOF's Revenue Integrity Protection Service, who is in-charge in the lifestyle investigation, was arrested in an entrapment operation by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Manila recently. But she, however, said that no one from the RIPS has so far approached her to extort money.

Mangaoang, Customs assessment chief Maximo Reyes and Customs employees Estrella Martinez, Edgar Martinez, Marites De Las Llagas and Elizabeth De Las Llagas were placed under lifestyle check on suspicions that they maintained unexplained wealth.

RIPS intelligence officer Virman Sayang-od recently requested authenticated copies of their tax declarations from the assessor's office in Cebu.

In 2003, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered a lifestyle check among government officials and employees after international agencies have expressed concern about the massive corruption in the country. - Fred P. Languido