BOC official suspended for failure to declare personal properties

MANILA, Philippines - The Office of the Ombudsman has given the Department of Finance’s Revenue Integrity Protection Service the go-signal to suspend an intelligence officer of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) for failure to declare and disclose his properties.

 The Office of the Ombudsman acted on the case filed last July by the DOF unit against the officer.

 The Revenue Integrity Protection Sevice filed a complaint of “Dishonesty and grave misconduct” against Mitchell Verdeflor, intelligence officer 1 of the BOC for his alleged failure to properly declare his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth of which are grossly disproportionate to his known and disclosed sources of income.

 According to the DOF unit, Verdeflor initially occupied the position of marine engineman at the agency on June 4, 1990 with a gross annual salary of roughly P29,000.

 On May 12 of 2003, Verdeflor started serving as intelligence officer 1 at the agency and since then earned P156,792.00.

 With his modest salary, Verdeflor managed to keep under the radar his real properties and some vehicles by putting them under his wife’s name, Ma. Lani Verdeflor.

 These included two residential lots in Pascual Subdivision Buayan in General Santos City, a commercial building in General Santos City, a 2006 Toyota Altis, a 2007 Nissan Patrol and also a 2003 Mitsubishi Pajero registered under Microbase Transport Equipt. Co. Inc.

 Verdeflor was also found to own various guns such as a 5.56 caliber Colt rifle, a .45 caliber Remington pistol, a .45 caliber H&K pistol, a 5.56 Galil rifle, an AK-47, a Smith and Wesson revolver, two glock pistols, two .45 caliber Sti pistols, a 9mm M&C machine pistol, a .45 Colt pistol and a 5.56 caliber Tavor rifle.    

 Through a standard lifestyle check and a careful evaluation of the complaints against Verdeflor, the DOF found sufficient basis and supporting documents to place Verdeflor under preventive suspension pending investigation of the case.

Finance Undersecretary for Revenue Operations and Legal Affairs Carlo Carag said the accusatory allegations contained in “the complaint, if proven true, could warrant his removal from government service.”