BESIDES former Muntinlupa Rep. Rufino Biazon, President Aquino is also seriously considering a legislator to replace embattled Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez, informed sources at the House of Representatives said.

According to the sources, Mr. Aquino is training his sight on Lakas-Kampi-CMD Rep. Magtanggol Gunigundo of Valenzuela, to take over the helm of graft-prone agency.

“President Aquino wants the agency cleansed. And he needs someone who knows the job well, so the name of Magi [Gunigundo] popped up,” one of the sources said.

Before Gunigundo was elected congressman, he served as a trial lawyer at defunct Economic Intelligence and Investigation Bureau of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) until 1997. He then became special assistant for law enforcement at the Office of the Commissioner of Customs from 1992. At the same year, he became the chief of Special Anti-Smuggling Unit in the same office.

Even before Mr. Aquino announced that Alvarez was on his way out, it was rumored that Biazon was set to assume the post of customs commissioner.

According to the same source, another legislator, whose identity he refused to divulge, met with Mr. Aquino to push for Gunigundo’s appointment.

“This lawmaker who also had an experience at the BOC met with the President to lobby for Magi’s appointment. He told the President that with Magi’s experience in the anti-smuggling drive, he would have the capacity to cleanse the agency from all those irregularities,” the source said.

At present, Gunigundo is at the forefront of a congressional investigation of alleged anomalies in the BOC, which prompted the President to boot out Alvarez.

“As far as we are concerned, Magi is in the best position to rid the agency of corruption,” the source said.