By Chino Leyco
At least five personnel of the Bureau of Customs were dismissed from the service after failing the lifestyle check, the Department of Finance (DOF) said Wednesday.
In a report by the DOF’s Revenue Integrity Protection Service (RIPS), at least five employees of the Customs were dismissed due to false declaration in their Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Networth (SALN).
(MANILA BULLETIN)
The Customs personnel were found to have owned properties that they did not report in their respective SALNs, RIPS document submitted to Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III showed.
SALN is a mandatory declaration by government officials of all their properties and liabilities in a given year. Public officials are required to file the declaration upon their assumption to office and every year thereafter.
The DOF-RIPS conducts lifestyle checks on finance officials, including those in attached agencies like Customs and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), by investigating the properties that they have either declared, not declared or misdeclared in their respective SALNs.
Implementing orders from the Office of the Ombudsman, the DOF dismissed from the service Customs employees namely, Uthman Mamadra and Rosalinda Mamadra, Delia Morala, Orlando Sangid, and Guillermo Roxas.
The Customs officials were ordered dismissed from the service by the Civil Service Commission and also slapped with accessory penalties of cancellation of their eligibility, perpetual disqualification from holding public office, forfeiture of retirement benefits.
Morala, was also dismissed from the service and meted with accessory penalties after being found guilty of serious dishonesty for filing an “untruthful” SALN, the RIPS said.
The Office of the Ombudsman found substantial evidence that Morala failed for several years to declare in her SALN real properties in Manila and Pangasinan along with her husband’s business interests in two corporations.
Aside from administrative liabilities, Morala is also facing criminal indictments for Violation of Section 8 of Republic Act 6713 (Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act), and Violation of Article 171 (4) of the Revised Penal Code before the Regional Trial Court of Manila.
Sangid was dismissed from the service and meted with accessory penalties on orders of the Office of the Ombudsman for serious dishonesty and grave misconduct, for failing to submit his SALN for the years 2000 to 2003, 2005 to 2006, and 2008 to 2009.
According to RIPS, Sangid also omitted from, and misdeclared, several real properties, motor vehicles and business interests in his SALN for the years 2004, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014.
The Office of the Ombudsman also found probable cause against Sangid for seven counts of violation of Section 8 in relation to Section 11 of RA 6713 and six counts of perjury.
The Ombudsman ordered the filing of the corresponding information on these charges in the appropriate courts.