Palace orders dismissal of BOC official for alleged extortion

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang ordered the dismissal of Bureau of Customs (BOC) Deputy Commissioner for Assessment Operations Coordinating Group (AOCG) Gregorio Chavez for allegedly extorting from a stainless steel company last year.

Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. said Chavez, along with seven members of the Bureau of Customs-Run After The Smugglers (BOC-RATS) group, namely lawyer Christopher Dy Buco, Edgar Quiñones, Francisco Fernandez, Alfredo Adao, Jose Elmer Velarde, Thomas Patric Relucio, and Jim Erick Acosta, was dismissed from the service based on a decision issued last Jan. 26.

Chavez described the decision as “unfair and without legal basis.”

Chavez and the BOC-RATS members were said to have been found guilty of committing grave misconduct, grave abuse of authority and oppression, gross incompetence and inefficiency, and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service.

Customs Commissioner Rufino Biazon said that while he still has to check with their Human Resources Department if they already received the dismissal order against Chavez from Malacañang, he has information that Chavez might be replaced by Prudencio Reyes Jr., director of the Port Operations Service, as deputy commissioner for AOCG.

In the 13-page decision, Ochoa said, “the foregoing circumstances clearly indicate that respondents were not inspired by purely legitimate governmental intentions, but by corrupt and personal intentions designed to persecute complaint in retaliation for its filing criminal and administrative charges against herein respondent Chavez at the Office of the Ombudsman.”

The complainant Sanyo Seiki Stainless Corp., a company engaged in the importation and exportation of stainless steel and similar products, “alleged that the respondents confederated with one another in harassing the said company, its officers and employees in retaliation for the earlier case of bribery and graft and corrupt practices filed by Sanyo Seiki with the Office of the Ombudsman against certain officials including Chavez.”

Sanyo Seiki claims that the harassment started last July when all the respondents, except Chavez, reportedly attempted to enter their two warehouses located in Meycauyan, Bulacan and in Dagat-Dagatan, Caloocan City using defective mission orders as these were not addressed to Sanyo Seiki.

The firm said that after they denied the BOC-RATS personnel’s entry into their premises, they were seen loitering outside the warehouses for several days.

On July 9, they reportedly blocked and seized one of the firm’s delivery trucks containing stainless steel products without presenting a warrant of seizure and detention.

The seized items were locally purchased and intended for local consumption.

After a formal charge was filed against the respondents last Sept. 29, they were placed under a 90-day preventive suspension.

But the BOC personnel argued that they acted within the scope of authority as provided for in the Letters of Authority (LOAs) and in the Mission Orders (MOs) issued by then Customs Commissioner Angelito Alvarez.

The respondents said Chavez had no participation since he was not part of the team who implemented the LOAs and MOs.

But Ochoa said, “the respondents’ contention that Chavez was not part of the team that enforced the MOs is belied by the very admission of respondent Chavez that he was the one who requested the issuance of ‘several Mission Orders’ against the complainant… Evidently, respondent Chavez was on top of the operations of RATS Group.”

Chavez said that the decision was “unfair and without legal basis” and that he would file a motion for reconsideration at Malacañang tomorrow.

He explained that the actions taken by the RATS team were in compliance to the MOs issued by Alvarez and that he was not even present when these acts were performed.