DAVAO CITY, Philippines – The Office of the Ombudsman-Mindanao has ordered the dismissal of two officials of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) here and suspended two others for grave misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service in connection with a complaint filed by a businessman almost three years ago.
In a decision dated Nov. 29, Deputy Ombudsman for Mindanao Humphrey Monteroso dismissed from the service Anju Nereo Castigador, then the collector of the Port of Davao, and Alicodsaman Dimasicil, acting assistant wharfinger.
Castigador has since been assigned as collector at the Cagayan de Oro City port.
In an earlier interview with The STAR, Castigador said he still had no copy of the Ombudsman’s order so he could not comment on the issue.
Monteroso also ordered the suspension of Customs examiners Lerrie Natividad and Moctar Amir for six months.
However, according to Davao Customs collector Martiniano Bangcoy, Natividad is now the acting deputy port collector in General Santos City while Amir is still with the Davao port office.
“I understand that if it is suspension, then it would immediately be executory. But we still do not have a copy of the order of the Ombudsman, so we cannot officially act on the order since we only read it in the media. We do not understand why the media got a copy of the Ombudsman resolution ahead of the respondents,” Bangcoy said.
The Ombudsman’s decision stemmed from the complaint filed by businessman Rodolfo Reta whose memorandum of agreement (MOA) with the BOC for the operation of the Customs’ designated examination area (DEA) at the Acquarius Container Yard (ACY) he himself owned was cancelled by Castigador.
The rift started when Reta refused to release 40 shipping containers declared to contain construction materials by its consignee Rapzel General Merchandise based here.
In earlier interviews, Reta said the shipping containers actually contained sacks of rice and not construction materials as Rapzel declared. The shipping containers were opened at the ACY compound on Feb. 26, 2010.
The shipping containers contained about 320 bags of rice each or a total of 12,800 bags.
But instead of commending Reta for the discovery of the contraband, Castigador instead ordered the transfer of the shipping containers from the ACY compound to the adjacent Sasa wharf on that same day. The order was only carried out two days later though.
The BOC also revoked its MOA with ACY for the DEA operation because of the controversy and transferred the DEA to the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) compound at the Sasa wharf.
In its decision, the Ombudsman-Mindanao noted a discrepancy in the issuance of the gate passes by the BOC for the shipping containers.
The Ombudsman noted that in the gate passes, the “release of shipment” column signed by Dimasicil was dated Feb. 24, 2010 and signed on the “received” column by a Rapzel representative.
Records, however, showed that the shipment arrived at the DEA only on Feb. 26, 2010 and yet the gate passes were prepared two days ahead of its receipt at the DEA and signed as received by the Rapzel representative even before its full examination as recommended by X-ray inspector Nilo Lim.
The Ombudsman also said in its decision that the Feb. 26, 2010 letter of Castigador transferring the DEA from the ACY to the PPA was “done without lawful authority,” as Castigador, on his own, could not suspend or revoke the MOA since only the BOC commissioner has such authority.
The Ombudsman also took note of Castigador’s failure to file a criminal case for violation of the Tariff and Customs Code against Rapzel, saying this is tantamount to giving unwarranted benefits to the company.
The Ombudsman faulted Natividad and Amir for their failure to examine the Rapzel shipment.