Despite the ongoing economic downturn, the Bureau of Customs -- Port of Manila (BoC-PoM) was able to offset its dent on revenue collection after it collected P3.609 billion last month.

PoM district collector and lawyer Rogel Gatchalian said the port surpassed its P3.450 billion cash collection in October, posting an excess of P161.2 million even as the programmed target during the month is higher than that of November.

Moreover, the Manila port reportedly exceeded the average monthly collection for June to October by P77 million or 2.19 percent.

Gatchalian said the PoM's positive collection is attributed to the efficient tax collection and teamwork among the personnel.

He added that the three-prong strategies formulated by PoM namely revenue enhancement, good governance, and curbing smuggling and corruption boosted its revenue collection for November.

In Harbor Center alone, data culled from PoM showed that it surpassed its target collection of P609 million last month after it collected P791.5 billion or an excess of P182.5 million.

On a daily basis, it was reported that the measly P25 million cash collections nearly doubled to P41.66 million.

“For this year, this is the first time that Harbor Center attained its monthly target through purely cash collection without the extra trimmings of deferred collections,” Gatchalian said.

The same report showed that despite the inclusion of the so called deferred payments, Harbor Center's collection performance from August to October were down by an average of 20 percent prior to the appointment of Gatchalian in the PoM.

Since he assumed post in October 26, Gatchalian has been criticized by his colleagues for not being qualified in the job but he said it was merely black propaganda to discredit him.