‘Customs OIC on probation’

Newly installed acting Customs Commissioner Napoleon Morales is on probation and could be appointed in a permanent capacity if he does his job well, the chairman of the House ways and means committee said yesterday.

"His good collection track record got him that promotion, but he must prove his worth by meeting collection targets of the Bureau of Customs," Tarlac Rep. Jesli Lapus said in a statement.

"He must also clear himself of pending charges, if any," he said.

As ways and means committee chairman, the panel in charge of tax bills, Lapus has oversight jurisdiction over Morales and his bureau.

Under a term-sharing arrangement agreed upon at the start of the second session of Congress in July, Lapus is to turn over the committee to Negros Oriental Rep. Herminio Teves next month.

But a petition by a majority of House members, who want the Tarlac congressman to stay on, has prevented the term-sharing from taking place.

Earlier, Assistant Majority Leader Abraham Mitra urged critics of President Arroyo to respect her decision to appoint a career official "with a record of surpassing collection targets" as Customs officer-in-charge.

He said the President used "performance and track record" as the yardstick in appointing Morales, former Batangas City port collector and a 37-year Customs veteran.

"She chose Morales for the sole reason that wherever he was assigned, he surpassed collection targets. Between a proven performer and an unknown factor, the President went with the one with the established reputation," he said.

"With BOC’s crucial role in putting our fiscal house in order, I think she decided that she can’t gamble with a commissioner whose first three months in office would amount to an on-the-job training. So he chose a ‘been there, done that’ guy, Morales, who is expected to hit the ground running," he said.

Mitra pointed out that Morales’ record of posting a collective surplus of P7 billion in the ports of Manila and Batangas, which reported shortfalls before his assignment, was hard to beat. — Jess Diaz