'Iron Lady' of the Bureau of Customs

MANILA, Philippines - Lawyer Ma. Lourdes Villamar Mangaoang is not feisty. She talks tough and acts tough only when the issues of honor and principle are at stake. She earned the moniker “Iron Lady” by the Cagayan de Oro Press Club in recognition of her exemplary leadership and sterling performance during her stint as the Bureau of Customs’ district collector of the port of Cagayan de Oro City.

Mangaoang was instrumental in the apprehension, prosecution and conviction of an stewardess for the smuggling of 21 kilos of gold jewelry, the members of the South African Triad drug syndicate who smuggled 500 grams of cocaine, and the apprehension of smuggled rice in Maluso, Basilan, wherein she was commended by the Office of the Customs Commissioner for exemplary accomplishments.

Mangaoang, a consistent scholar from elementary to high school, finished her Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and her Bachelor of Laws in UP. She passed the Bar examination with flying colors, and possesses both the career professional service eligibility and the career executive service eligibility. She is a member of the Federacion Internacional de Abogadas, Women’s Lawyers Circle, and Collectors Association of the Philippines.

To further hone her executive skills, she studied at the Strategic Management Regulatory and Enforcement Agencies in the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

Mangaoang has received 39 awards, commendations and plaques of appreciation for her accomplishments. She has attended more than 40 training programs, seminars and workshops in the US, Argentina, China, Australia, Vietnam, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan and Austria.

As head of X-ray inspection, she attended a number of training and seminars such as the WCO X-ray Image Scanner-Analyses Workshop conducted by the World Customs Organization and the Australian Customs Service in Melbourne, Australia; Maintenance Training Course on THSCAN MT1213LT Container/Vehicle Inspection System in Beijing, China and the 12th International Congress of the International Radiation Protection Association.

Mangaoang also received a plaque of recognition for the deployment of X-ray scanners that facilitated the processing of 12,622 entries which caused the seizure of regulated chemicals, undeclared CDs and DVDs, highly regulated air soft guns, misdeclared rice shipments and motor vehicles.

She is also credited for the training of 500 personnel, and is a recipient of commendation by the Optical Media Board for the confiscation of two sets of replicating machines, 2,000 pieces of pornographic DVDs and 480,000 pieces of blank CDs worth millions of pesos.