President Marcos Jr.’s chief economic manager is upbeat over government revenue collection in 2026, as the Bureau of Customs (BOC) moved to bolster its policy and intelligence-driven decision-making with the creation of a new strategic unit under the chief’s first order of the year.

Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Frederick D. Go told Manila Bulletin on Wednesday, Jan. 7, that he is “optimistic” about how the revenue-collecting agencies will perform this year.

He said the DOF “will closely monitor the performance of the BOC and provide stronger policy support to ensure that targets are met.” This comes amid Customs falling short of its 2025 collection goal of ₱958.7 billion.

Last year, the country’s second-largest tax collection agency managed to rake in ₱934.4 billion, which was said to have been hurt by weaker imports, the rice import ban, and global price jitters.

Meanwhile, the first Customs memorandum order (CMO) in 2026, signed on Jan. 5, officially creates the Commissioner’s Strategic Advisory Office (CSAO) under the direct authority of Commissioner Ariel F. Nepomuceno.

According to the CMO, the new office will serve as a centralized analytical unit to help the BOC respond to changes in global trade and technology by turning data and intelligence into inputs for policy and operations.

Among the office’s primary functions is to consolidate and assess reports from various sources, including internal BOC units, foreign counterparts, and confidential informants, to identify emerging risks and trends.

It can be noted that the office will maintain a “non-enforcement character,” meaning it serves only to recommend policy and strategic decisions, while actual operational actions remain subject to Nepomuceno’s final approval.

Beyond border protection, the office also has a self-monitoring role to “identify and assess potential internal threats and vulnerabilities and recommend measures to strengthen institutional integrity and capacity.”

To prevent leaks or outside interference, the office must follow a tightly controlled reporting structure. It will “report directly and exclusively to the Commissioner,” and its assessments are considered “confidential advisory materials intended solely for the Commissioner’s use.”

Further, the order also shields CSAO personnel from being held responsible for poor outcomes resulting from inaccurate data from other departments.

It states that personnel shall be “without liability for failures solely attributable to external data deficiencies” and that their liability is “limited to analytical and reporting functions.”