Revenue officer reinstated

MANILA, Philippines - The Court of Appeals has recently ordered the reinstatement of a revenue officer earlier dismissed for grave misconduct due to his lavish lifestyle, citing that his huge assets was actually because of his inheritance.

The CA’s eighth division granted the petition for review under Rule 43 of the 1997 Rules on Civil Procedure filed by Andres Jusayan Gabagat Jr. and dismissed the complaint filed against him. The CA also annulled and set aside the Review Decision dated Aug. 2, 2007 and the Orders dated Oct. 14, 2008, Nov. 24, 2008 and Aug. 12, 2009 of the Office of the Ombudsman in OMB-C-A-04-0012-A.

In a 26-page decision penned by Associate Justice Arturo Tayag, the CA  said the “fact lends credence to petitioner Gabagat’s claim that the huge increase in his net worth from 1998 to 1990 was due to inheritance.”

The decision was concurred by Associate Justices Amelita G. Tolentino and Elihu A. Ybanez.

Records showed that, on Jan. 14, 2004 , a complaint for grave misconduct, dishonesty and falsification of official documents under the Uniform Rules on Administrative Cases was filed against petitioner Gabagat at the Office of the Ombudsman by the Fact-Finding and Intelligence Bureau. The FFIB is under the Office of the Ombudsman.

Before being fired, Gaba­gat worked at the Quezon City Hall as tax examiner, later as local treasury operations officer and then as revenue officer 1 at the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

The FFIB complaint alleged that in 2001, Gabagat acquired a house and lot in La Loma, Quezon City worth P1 million although his annual salary was then only P136,128. The purchase was also omitted in Gabagat’s 2002 Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Networth (SALN).

The complaint alleged that during a two-year-period from 1988 to 1990, petitioner’s net worth rose from only P125,000 in 1988 to P1,120,304 in 1990. This was an increase of P995,304 despite of his annual basic salaries totalling only to P112,416.

In his counter-affidavit, Gabagat explained that said increase came mostly from properties which his mother gave him as part of his share in the estate of his father who died on Feb. 2, 1988. As part of his inheritance from his father, petitioner received in 1989 his father’s car worth P180,000, his racehorse worth P150,000 and some pieces of jewelry worth P150,000.

The complaint against Gabagat was dismissed by Prosecutor Evelina Magsanoc-Reyes, Graft Investigation and Prosecution Officer 22,  in a resolution dated Oct. 30, 2004 .

But three years later, the Ombudsman’s Preliminary Investigation and Administration Adjudication Bureau (PIAB-E), in its review decision dated Aug. 2, 2007, reversed Reyes’s resolution and found petitioner administratively liable for grave misconduct.

The petitioner filed an appeal to the CA. The CA noted that the couple cohabitated even before she went to the US to work as a nurse.