Mangaoang sacked for ‘underperforming,’ says Customs

Rambo Talabong

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Mangaoang sacked for ‘underperforming,’ says Customs
Documents obtained by Rappler show Commissioner Isidro Lapeña sacked Mangaoang 11 days before she spoke before the Senate blue ribbon committee

MANILA, Philippines – Lourdes Mangaoang, the former X-ray division chief of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) was sacked as deputy collector at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) because she was not doing her job well, Customs spokesman Erastus Austria said on Monday, October 22.

“She was not transferred to silence her, but because she was underperforming,” Austria told Rappler in a phone interview.

This comes after documents obtained by Rappler showed that Commissioner Isidro Lapeña sacked Mangaoang just 11 days before she spoke before the Senate blue ribbon committee, flagging their X-ray division for having failed to follow standard operating procedures.

In a message to Rappler on Monday, Mangaoang disputed Austria’s claim, saying Lapeña had removed her from the NAIA post to give her a warning if she testified against him.

“He sacked me in order to intimidate me and to warn me that, if I testify against him, the worst will happen to me,” Mangaoang said.

INVITE. Lourdes Mangaoang was invited to attend the Senate blue ribbon committee hearing to testify about the missing one ton of shabu. Photo courtesy of Mangaoang

She pointed out that her assignment at the airport was too short for an evaluation.

“I assumed office in NAIA on August 27. The assessment period is one month. The [order] reassigning me to CMU (Customs Monitoring Unit) was dated September 12. Wala pang one month (That’s not even a month yet),” she explained.

Mangaoang received on September 10 the invitation to testify before the Senate, and said Lapeña received a copy of it as he was her boss. Mangaoang said Lapeña expected her to speak out, thus the reassignment.

Austria denied Mangaoang’s claim, explaining that Mangaoang was not ordered to leave the customs service but to only be assigned in the CMU, where officers who underperformed or are facing complaints are usually placed.

In a document dated September 12, the same day as Mangaoang’s reassignment order, Customs chief Lapeña asked for a lifestyle check on Mangaoang, as he suspected corruption.

Mangaoang has so far kept her position as NAIA deputy collector for passenger services, pending the resolution of the appeal she filed with the Civil Service Commission. – Rappler.com

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Rambo Talabong

Rambo Talabong covers the House of Representatives and local governments for Rappler. Prior to this, he covered security and crime. He was named Jaime V. Ongpin Fellow in 2019 for his reporting on President Rodrigo Duterte’s war on drugs. In 2021, he was selected as a journalism fellow by the Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics.