PARTNERS & CONSULTANTS

GEORGE M. JEREOS is a former Commissioner of Customs. A Career Executive Service Officer, he has 36 years customs experience rising from the ranks and held various positions, including Deputy Commissioner for Assessment and Operations and Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence and Enforcement. He also previously held the positions of Director for Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS); Director of Enforcement and Security Service (ESS) and Director of Legal Service. In 1995, he was head of the Philippine Delegation to Asia Pacific Economic Corporation (APEC) Subcommittee on customs procedures. He was sent as lone delegate of the Philippines to the subsequent meetings of the Sub-Committee Customs Procedure in Quebec City, Canada and Roturua, New Zealand. In 2004, he was the lone Philippine Delegate to the 12th Meeting of ASEAN Directors General of Customs held in Hanoi, Vietnam. He has attended numerous seminars and trainings abroad on various customs and trade issues; In Taipei, Taiwan for the Taipei-Manila Cornet Agreement; in Singapore, for the Istanbul Convention; In Berlin, Germany, Brussels, Belgium, Denmark and West Germany (before reunification)on Customs Administration; In Geneva, Switzerland; London, United Kingdom and Washington D.C.,USA for study sponsored by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO); In Tokyo and Kobe, Japan and Sydney and Canberra, Australia for Risk Assessment and Customs Enforcement. He has also been invited as resource speaker in various seminars here and abroad, including resource speaker at the Asian Development Bank’s Customs Cooperation Committee Conference held in Beijing, China in 2004; as invited speaker representing East Asia at the World Trade Organization (WTO) Geneva, Switzerland. He has received numerous commendations and plaques for outstanding service for government customs work. Among others, two Presidential Commendations, from the Committee on Ways and Means, House of Representative, the Development Academy of the Phfilippines, Model Customs Employee of the Year, from the Commissioners of Customs, the Societe Generale da Surveillance and other government offices. After his retirement as Commissioner of Customs he was engaged as consultant for the Congressional Overnight Committee on the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program from August 2006 to June 2007. He is a Career Executive Service Officer III. A lawyer, he received his Bachelor of Laws degree from Ateneo de Manila and member of the Philippine Bar.

FELICITACION R. GELUZ was a consultant of USAID/EMERGE on various customs risk management projects. A Licensed Customs Broker (LCB) and a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), she worked for the Bureau of Customs, Department of Finance, for more than 30 years in various senior positions (Collector of Clark and MICP, and Director, Import Assessment Service) and was formerly the interim head of the Post Entry Audit Group. She has numerous trainings abroad on various customs subjects and has a degree in Business Administration from UP and a Masters Degree in Business Administration (M.BA).

AMPARO C. IGNACIO is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a Licensed Customs Broker (LCB, 2nd Place). She previously worked as Technical Assistant of Commissioner Guillermo Parayno, Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR). Prior to that, she worked for the Bureau of Customs, Department of Finance for more than 40 years, holding various senior positions such as District.

ALEX M. GATICALES is currently a Customs Institutional Expert of USAID/EMERGE and a customs consultant of JICA. He previously worked with the Bureau of Customs (BoC), Department of Finance, for 14 years. During this time, he occupied various positions including Deputy Collector – NAIA Collection District, Chief of Staff (twice), Office of the Commissioner of Customs, and Executive Director of the BoC-SGS Valuation and Classification Dispute Settlement Committee. He was Vice Chairman of the BoC Technical Working Group that drafted the required legislation (RA 9135) and the implementing rules and regulations of the new WTO valuation method and the Post Entry Audit and Record Keeping systems.

He has attended numerous trainings abroad on various customs and WTO subjects and has conducted a series of seminars on the same subject for both customs officials and personnel, and the private import sector organizations nationwide including the various chambers of commerce (e.g. European Chamber of Commerce, Japanese Chamber of Commerce). After his stint with the Bureau of Customs, Mr. Gaticales did consulting work with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on customs policy development projects. He obtained his AB Political Science, cum laude and Bachelor of Laws from the University of the Philippines (UP), Diliman Campus.