Ombudsman orders dismissal of 7 Customs execs

MANILA, Philippines — The Office of the Ombudsman has ordered the dismissal of seven Bureau of Customs (BOC) officials for various administrative offenses in connection with the irregular handling of cargoes and packages in their respective areas of assignment.

Ordered dismissed were deputy collector for operations of the Manila International Container Port (MICP) Ramon Hernandez; Customs Operations Officer Lomonto Macabando; Customs Officers III Vanzandt Remonde and Vicente Gamboa; Customs Special Police assistant chief Jaybee Raul Cometa; BOC-Zamboanga Special Agent Oscar Farin and Customs security guard Renly Tiñana.

Ombudsman Samuel Martires approved their dismissal, contained in seven separate decisions, last Aug. 15.

BOC assistant commissioner Vincent Philip Maronilla said they would abide by the decision. He clarified though that the BOC is yet to receive its copies of the dismissal orders.

Hernandez was specifically found guilty of three counts of gross neglect of duty and grave misconduct in connection with the alleged irregular transshipment of 539 cargo containers from MICP to Port of Batangas from January to May 2011. 

The investigation revealed that only 309 of the containers reached the port while the remaining 230 were lost due to Hernandez’s negligence and failure to observe at least three BOC memoranda mandating x-ray procedures and computerized system of recording and tracking.

“Because of your actuations, questioned shipments covered by approved transshipments were lost or could not be accounted for, thereby depriving the government much of its needed revenue amounting to several millions of pesos,” the decision prepared by graft investigators Ferdinand Laguna, Clarisa Tejada, Carmelo Gines Jr. and Francisco Molina read.

Macabando, meanwhile, was found guilty of grave misconduct for supposedly trying to sneak out a clutch bag full of jewelry handed to him by two passengers at the BOC arrival area at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 on May 5, 2018.

The ombudsman said its investigation revealed that Macabando assisted the two passengers, a certain Abraham and a certain Bangsa-an, “in their attempt to bring into the Philippines the assorted pieces of jewelry without payment of the required duties and taxes and without declaration of said jewelry upon their arrival in the Philippines, a clear violation of Sections 1401 and 1404 of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA).”

In another decision, Remonde was found guilty of grave misconduct, gross neglect of duty, serious dishonesty and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of service.

Remonde’s offenses stemmed from certifying the veracity of a misdeclared shipment in August 2018. 

The ombudsman said Remonde issued an alert order report form and a memorandum certifying that the imported shipment contains packages of refractory mortar as declared. However, a later re-examination revealed that the shipment contained sacks of sugar.

As for Gamboa, the anti-graft office found him guilty of grave misconduct for demanding and receiving P3,000 from a parcel claimant without issuing any official receipt. 

Cometa, on the other hand, was found guilty of gross neglect of duty and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of service for his failure to take appropriate measures to flag a questionable shipment which arrived at the MICP on March 17, 2019 and was later found to contain 276 kilos of methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu.

The shipment was first declared as plastic resin. 

In the case of Farin, he was found guilty of gross neglect of duty and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service after failing to verify the documents of several cargo trucks in September 2018. The trucks were later apprehended and found to be containing smuggled rice.

BOC security guard Tiñana, meanwhile, was found guilty of grave misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service for supposedly hiring an on-the-job trainee (OJT) even if the trainee’s contract had already been terminated. – With Evelyn Macairan