Insider

Barely warming his seat, newly appointed Customs deputy commissioner Napoleon "Boy" Morales is already feeling the heat generated by his promotion when President Arroyo designated him as officer-in-charge (OIC) at the Bureau. Morales took over from Customs deputy commissioner Alexander Arevalo who had been the OIC at the Bureau since July last year after former Customs commissioner Alberto Lina defected from the Arroyo administration and joined the so-called "Hyatt 10" who resigned and demanded the resignation of the President.

Morales is a typical career executive who rose from the ranks. He was first employed at the Customs Bureau as a messenger in 1968. And 38 years later in the career service, Morales is now the top man at the Bureau. But since he became a political appointee, Morales lost his career executive status that protects him as a member of the civil service.

Morales took his oath of office last Dec.22 at Malacañang Palace but how he got the plum post remains a big mystery to the many wannabes and their respective backers whose nominations were set aside by the President.

Obviously trying to dig up dirt on the new appointee of Mrs.Arroyo, the record of Morales being charged with alleged technical smuggling filed before the Ombudsman, filtered out in the media. The charges were in connection with the seizure of cornstarch importation that Morales handled while he was the Customs district collector at the Port of Batangas, but which emanated from the Port of Cebu, headed at that time by former military rebel leader Billy Bibit. The technical smuggling charges ended up in the lap of Morales. The case was initiated last year against him by the Task Force Anti-Smuggling (TFAS), headed by Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Angelo Reyes. I think Morales threatened to file a libel suit against The STAR and Reyes when our reporter wrote about the filing of those charges against him.

Taking up the cudgels for Morales, his boss, Finance Secretary Margarito Teves cited that the newly appointed OIC of the Customs Bureau had already been cleared by the Office of the Ombudsman after the highly technical and legal issues on the questioned importation were clarified and verified as not constituting any offense of graft. The Ombudsman opined that Morales merely followed the provisions of the Tariff and Customs Code and existing Customs rules and regulations in the application of Republic Act 9715 on Transactions Value in the appraisal and valuation of the imported items in question.

There were also a lot of talks that the appointment of Morales to the Bureau was supposedly engineered by his alleged patrons who are the favorites of namedropping smugglers in the country. Morales swears to high heavens he does "not know from Adam" the likes of Lucio Co, among those notoriously linked to smuggling activities in the country.

Neither, he swears, is he supposedly the protégé of Batangas politicians like Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, Sen.Ralph Recto nor his allegedly being close to former Justice Secretary Hernando Perez. The three are known S.O.B.’s or Sons of Batangas.

Like any other bureaucrat, Morales jestingly admitted he makes it a point to make "mano po" or the Filipino custom of kissing the hands of elders whenever he bumps into any of these popular leaders in Batangas.

For someone who claims he has no political backers or political patrons, Morales can be considered very fortunate to win the trust and confidence of President Arroyo for him to be appointed at the Customs Bureau.

Morales says he was the most surprised person when he was summoned to see President Arroyo at the Palace last Nov. 4 when talks were rife about the scouting for a new Customs commissioner.

Morales, 55, worked his way up to the Bureau from his humble beginnings as a working student and finished his college degree, major in tariff and taxation at the University of the East. He recalls with pride that Mrs.Arroyo came to know about his qualifications and capability to deliver when the President started in 2002 the convening of revenue performance command conference at the Palace where she calls to regular meeting all the Customs district collectors in the evaluation of their respective collection performances.

"I tried an outsider (referring to Lina) but it did not work. I have tried an insider in the past but unfortunately Customs chief George Jereos had only two months left before his retirement. So I think an insider like you will be able to do the work we need," he quoted President Arroyo telling him. Teves confirmed these conversations where he was also present.

"What we did is to give five names to the President. He (Morales) is one of those. The President preferred him because he's an insider and therefore his learning curve is shorter. The need is how quickly we can generate revenues and if he does well, he will become permanent Customs commissioner and not just OIC," Teves pointed out.

Teves cited this was the same approach he applied in the case of Bureau of Internal Revenue OIC Jose Bunag who was finally sworn in by the President last week as permanent BIR commissioner. Teves and Bunag started together also after the "Hyatt 10" caper in July last year.

The Finance Department had already set P192 billion as revenue collection target for the BOC for 2006. But Teves told the President Morales has a track record of surpassing target revenue collections. Teves chirped that the incoming Customs chief could very well collect more than what is targeted and he increased the target to P200 billion. Moreover, he quipped in jest, P200 billion is much easier to remember.

Feeling overwhelmed by the show of presidential trust on his capability, Morales readily accepted the challenge and answered he can do it. Now that his euphoria has subsided and his feet planted back to the ground, Morales says he should have answered he would try his best.

While it was also at the Bureau where Morales met his wife Shirley Soler, it gave birth to a potential problem for him. And this problem is something that he would have to ask for a big sacrifice from his wife who is also a career executive official at the Bureau. She is currently Customs Operations Officer V at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

Before any conflict of interest or delicadeza issue can be raised against them, Morales has sounded out to his wife if she can possibly go on some kind of an official leave, or at best, opt for an early retirement from the government service. Realizing it would certainly be unfair to his wife, Morales is courting her again to agree to any of this option. The Morales couple has two daughters, one of whom is married and is currently a doctor at the Medical City, while their other daughter is a chemist who lives now in Vancouver, Canada. Facing this ticklish complication, Morales is contemplating to ask his wife to live for a while with their daughter in Canada. This is the high price that a political appointee like Morales has to pay.

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