4 ex-CSC workers face graft raps

MANILA, Philippines - The Office of the Ombudsman has filed direct bribery and graft charges against four former employees of the Civil Service Commission (CSC) for allegedly manipulating the results of government service examinations for a fee.

Antonio Agustin Jr., Elizabeth Tolosa, Ferdinand Aganad, and Edmar Alfaro were charged before the Quezon City regional trial court based on an investigation by the National Bureau of Investigation, which showed they conspired to manipulate the result of a CSC test, particularly a computer-assisted test (CAT), in exchange for money from those wanting to enter government service. 

The group allegedly used different ways of test manipulation, including the inscription of coded answers to questions on “crib sheets,” pencils, watches, and t-shirts, as well as the use of a “library,” or a collection of answers from previously taken and passed examinations.

The NBI’s investigation also showed that interested examinees were charged P15,000 to P75,000, depending on the age of the examinee.

In a 42-page resolution, Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez ruled that there is “clear showing that the (respondents), through evident bad faith, gave unwarranted benefit or advantage to those examinees who should not have passed the civil service examination and whose passing rates gave them the opportunity to work in any government institution.”

She stressed that such opportunities to work in government should not be given to people with questionable integrity, considering how the examinees tried to buy test results.

“The test files and answer data files in the computers of the testing centers of the CSC-(National Capital Region) which were hacked and manipulated by the respondent-former employees of the Commission may be considered valuable information of a confidential character under Section 3(k) of Republic Act 3019,” the anti-graft law, Gutierrez said.