The Office of the Ombudsman has ordered the dismissal from service of seven Bureau of Customs (BOC) officials and employees for grave misconduct and neglect of duty.
Ombudsman Samuel Martires in separate rulings dated August 15 ordered the dismissal from service of special police assistant chief Jaybee Raul Cometa, special agent I Oscar Farin, customs operations officer III Vicente Gamboa, Manila International Container Port (MICP) deputy collector for operations Ramon Hernandez, COO V Lomonto Macabando, COO III Vanzandt Remonde, and customs security guard II Renly Tiñana.
Customs commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero, in a press conference on August 20, said the seven are part of the 119 personnel that BOC had earlier submitted to Ombudsman for investigation due to different administrative and criminal cases.
In another ruling, Martires suspended for one year without pay COO IV Dolores Domingo for reportedly refusing to comply with an order reassigning her to Port of Cagayan de Oro in December 2016.
Cometa was found guilty of gross neglect of duty and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service for failing to encode properly a shipment filled with 276 kilos of methamphetamine hydrochloride (shabu) mixed in concealed bags of plastic resin. Instead of tagging the shipment “red” under BOC’s selectivity system, Cometa reportedly tagged the shipment “yellow, which did not require an inspection.
Farin was found guilty of gross neglect of duty and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service for his “indifference” to the transfer of 23,015 sacks of smuggled rice from Malaysia out of Ben Go wharf from September 27 to 28, 2018. Farin reportedly did not verify if the trucks were authorized by BOC, nor did he determine their final destinations.
Gamboa was dismissed for grave misconduct for reportedly taking P3,000 from a certain Kathy Kimberly Gamboa on February 28, 2018 for a parcel addressed to the latter, forging her signature in the Statement of Receipt of Duties Collected on Informal Entry, and not immediately issuing an official receipt.
Hernandez was found guilty of three counts of gross neglect of duty and grave misconduct for the irregular transshipment from MICP to Port of Batangas of 539 cargo containers and the loss of 230 containers from the batch while he was deputy collector for operations at MICP.
Macabando was found guilty of grave misconduct for trying to smuggle a clutch bag filled with jewelry by not issuing any receipt or invoice, and failing to declare the item with the BOC in May 2018.
Remonde was found guilty of conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service, grave misconduct, gross neglect of duty and serious dishonesty when in August 2018 he certified that a shipment contained packages of refractory mortar and no sugar. Upon re-examination, however, the shipment was found to contain sacks of sugar.
Tiñana was found guilty of grave misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service for using a former on-the-job trainee to deposit huge amounts of money allegedly obtained from an “illicit source” to his various bank accounts over the course of three months.
Aside from dismissal from public service, the seven have also been perpetually disqualified from public office.
If the Ombudsman’s decisions for dismissal are no longer enforceable since the seven officials and employees have already been relieved, they would still have to pay a fine equal to one year of their salary as Customs employees.
The Office of the Ombudsman last July 24 ordered an in-depth investigation into the alleged graft and corrupt practices perpetrated by officials and employees of BOC, results of which may lead to the filing of criminal and administrative charges.
The investigation was in response to President Rodrigo Duterte’s previous statements alleging that more than 60 Customs officials and employees were involved in corrupt practices. Duterte later said he would terminate the services of 100 more BOC employees for alleged involvement in corrupt activities.
