7 graduate from Customs basic training

The Division of Customs welcomed new officers to its fold after seven erstwhile trainees graduated from basic training yesterday with a simple ceremony at the Office of the Governor on Capital Hill.

Graduates from the division’s Third Cycle Customs Basic Training include now Customs officers Shawn Dela Cruz, Nacrina Kaipat, Rita Lizama, Joseph Muña, John Meco Sablan, Vicente Teregeyo, and Nokki Saralu. The latter also received a plaque for hurdling K-9 training.

What also is impressive is that four of the seven new Customs officers— Sablan, Dela Cruz, Lizama, and Saralu—are also former Workforce Investment Act trainees.

Acting governor Jude U. Hofschneider, Finance Secretary Larrisa Larson, and Customs director Jose C. Mafnas, attended the graduation rite.

“It’s a great day, which is a step in the right direction. It’s further evidence on the efforts of this administration and the agency itself that they are very serious in going about the business of revenue collection and also to ensure contraband and other illegal stuff are intercepted,” Hofschneider told reporters after the event.

Larson congratulated the seven graduates as well as Mafnas for welcoming new officers to his agency.

“We’re very happy to be here today. This graduation is the culmination of a training initiative that we started at the Division of Customs. It’s very critical that our staff is very aware of the laws and regulations of the Commonwealth,” Larson said. “These guys have been working hard the past several weeks and all of it is finally paying off. We have a new round of training completed and they’re going to move into officer positions now.”

The Finance secretary also lauded Customs for a 20.7-percent increase in collections in fiscal year 2014, correlating this trend to a beefed-up staff at Customs.

“The increase in Customs collections is something that we’ve seen over the last year or so. It’s a result of trainings like these. The staff is aware of what to look for, they have a better job of catching illegal activity because they understand their roles a lot of better because of trainings like these,” Larson said.

Mafnas clarified that basic training didn’t only involved learning about Customs regulations but also required trainees to cross-train with other government agencies.

“They went through 200 hours of training and the training provided was not only by Customs but also by the Division of Environmental Quality, Department of Public Safety, Office of the Public Auditor, Office of the Attorney General, and Revenue and Tax. These are agencies that we deal with whenever we intercept something that is under the responsibility of that agency.”

He echoed what Larson said about more staff equating to more efficient Customs inspections.

“We can put more people on the line in container inspection or passenger inspection. The more manpower we have, the more we can scrutinize, let’s say, containers. It really helps if you have adequate manpower. This is really adequate having these people here.”

Saralu said he is relieved more than anything else after graduating from basic training yesterday.

“[It] feels so good because I’m done with 8-10 weeks of training. It’s a relief and I’m very excited to be on the line and find contraband and make our islands a safer place. Just looking how life is here, crystal meth has taken a big toll in our islands and I just want to help,” the son of police office Elias “Jun” Saralu said.

The former Saipan Little League standout also finished K-9 handling training and has been handling his K-9 dog “Charlie” since August.

“Officer Saralu first went to the handler course. We have three new K-9 dogs and they are 100 percent better than those we retired. Customs officers Saralu was part of the WIA program. We brought him in and also had him go through K-9 training. We want handlers to know everything about Customs and that’s why he had to go through basic training also,” said Mafnas.