MAJOR SHAKE-UP: Marcos administration moves top officials across four key agencies

National

FOUR key government agencies are in for a leadership shake-up as the Marcos administration reassigns officials overseeing revenue collection, trade facilitation and investment promotion.

Bureau of Customs (BOC) Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno is expected to move to the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA), while Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) chief Charlito Mendoza is set to take over Customs.

Finance Undersecretary Rolando Ligon Jr. is expected to replace Mendoza at the BIR, while BCDA president and CEO Joshua Bingcang is moving to the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), Finance Secretary Frederick Go confirmed yesterday.

The announcement came during the turnover of the BCDA’s P8.4-billion remittance to the Bureau of the Treasury. The fate of PEZA chief Tereso Panga remains uncertain.

Mendoza, a lawyer and licensed geodetic engineer appointed BIR chief in November 2025, said he would build on Nepomuceno’s reforms and prioritize border protection, revenue collection and legitimate trade facilitation. He also urged BIR personnel to support Ligon and complete the agency’s tax modernization projects.

Go cited the BCDA’s performance as a factor in Bingcang’s reassignment.

“You saw the performance of BCDA. It’s a very good performance. So I believe the capabilities, the leadership there is more than qualified to be wherever the President would like them to be,” he said in a Philstar report.

BCDA-approved investments surged 143 percent to P145.46 billion from January to October. Its latest remittance brought total contributions from asset disposition proceeds to P11.5 billion, up 267 percent from P3.1 billion last year. Most of the proceeds will go to the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Go said the Office of the President would make official announcements on the other appointments, emphasizing that personnel assignments are the President’s prerogative.

Nepomuceno, who served as Customs chief for just over a year, thanked bureau employees for supporting reforms and modernization efforts and appealed to them to extend the same cooperation to Mendoza.

Under his watch, the BOC collected P853.662 billion in the first 10 months of 2026, exceeding its target by P7.14 billion. It also conducted 1,452 enforcement operations that resulted in the seizure of P50.93 billion worth of illicit and smuggled goods.

The Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. expressed concern over the changes at the BOC and PEZA, stressing the need to preserve institutional continuity and ongoing reforms.

PEZA has approved P309.63 billion in investments as of end-October, up 77 percent year-on-year. Panga earlier projected full-year approvals of P315 billion to P320 billion, potentially surpassing the agency’s 2012 record of P312 billion.

The reshuffle takes place as the government’s main revenue-generating agencies face a combined collection target of P4.44 trillion this year.(MyTVCebu)