GMA lowers boom on unpunished government exec

President Arroyo has lowered the boom on an Estrada appointee who was found guilty of graft and corruption three years ago but has since been unpunished for his offense.

Receiving the maximum penalty for grave misconduct was former Bureau of Immigration and Deportation (BID) associate commissioner Edgardo Mendoza, the first government official to be disciplined under the Arroyo administration.

By authority of the President, Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo imposed the following accessory penalties on the resigned official: cancellation of civil service eligibility; disqualification from re-employment in the government service; and forfeiture of leave credits, if any.

The penalties were meted under Administrative Order 20, dated Oct. 25, a copy of which was obtained by The STAR yesterday.

Mendoza was found guilty by the Presidential Commission Against Graft and Corruption (PCAGC) in 1998 based on a complaint filed by three foreigners.

Kato Kenji of Japan, Ronald Mark Edgar of Australia and Shahaz Hussain Shahid of Pakistan complained to government authorities after BID agents arrested them for being "overstaying aliens." The trio claimed they were detained without waiver and were not informed of their right to remain silent and right to counsel of their choice.

The complaint was referred to the Department of Justice since the BID is one of its attached agencies.

On Feb. 20, 1998, the DOJ found the arrests to be non-valid because they were made without proper warrants and without deportability being determined by the Board of Commissioners.

The DOJ submitted the results of the probe to the PCAGC for resolution since the subject of the complaint was a presidential appointee.

"Respondent is guilty of grave misconduct," the PCAGC ruled. The commission noted, however, that the case had been overtaken by the respondent’s resignation from the service to run for an elective position in 1998.

When the case was forwarded to the Office of the President for review and final action, Palace lawyers affirmed the guilty verdict against Mendoza with modifications.

"We concur with the PCAGC insofar as that respondent can no longer be dismissed from service owing to the severance of official ties upon his resignation... but disagree with the PCAGC’s posture that the respondent’s resignation while said case was pending investigation had rendered the same moot and academic," Romulo said.

Instead of considering the administrative case moot and academic, the Palace said Mendoza will be made to suffer the accessory penalties to dismissal from service.

Mendoza won a congressional seat in the second district of Batangas under then President Joseph Estrada’s Lapian ng Masang Pilipino in the May 1998 elections. He ran for re-election this year but lost to Frank Perez, son of Justice Secretary Hernando Perez.