The message coming out of Northern Mindanao is loud and crystal clear: Customs is done playing nice. Under the iron-fisted leadership of Commissioner Ariel F. Nepomuceno, the Bureau of Customs is tightening the country’s gateways and putting drug syndicates on immediate notice.

This week, the BOC–Port of Cagayan de Oro, led by the ever-proactive District Collector Atty. Manuel O. Zurbito Jr. stormed into the Airport Interdiction Training led by PDEA. For five straight days, from November 17 to 21, Customs personnel were drilled, sharpened, and toughened—preparing them for the kind of drug interdiction work that demands instincts like steel.

The PDEA Academy didn’t hold back. They delivered hard-core training on airport profiling, evidence handling, chain of custody, abandoned parcels, and controlled deliveries—the gritty, behind-the-curtain work needed to stop traffickers dead in their tracks. The week ended with a no-nonsense simulation at Laguindingan Airport, where officers got a taste of the real battlefield.

But the real shockwave came right after the training.

Customs—represented by Deputy Collector for Operations, Atty. Mohamad Ben-Usman—signed a power-packed Memorandum of Agreement with heavyweights: Bureau of Immigration, NBI, PNP, DOJ, OTS, and Aboitiz InfraCapital. The result? A new force to be reckoned with: the Laguindingan International Airport–Inter-Agency Drug Interdiction Task Group (LIA-IADITG).

This isn’t just a task force.
It’s a warning shot.

And behind this massive inter-agency push is one man’s uncompromising directive: Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno wants the borders sealed tight and the drug syndicates crushed—no excuses, no loopholes, no second chances.

District Collector Manuel Zurbito Jr. has taken that marching order and kicked it into high gear, making sure CDO is not just aligned with the national strategy but leading from the front—armed, trained, and coordinated with the country’s top law enforcement bodies.

With this new alliance locked in, Laguindingan Airport just became one of the toughest airports for criminals to mess with.

The bottom line?
Under Nepomuceno’s command and Zurbito’s on-ground grit, Customs isn’t guarding the borders—
They’re fortifying them like a warzone.

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