Land Bank employee accused of amassing ill-gotten wealth

Friday, February 10, 2012

A DAVAO City-based employee of the Land Bank of the Philippines may be dismissed from his job for allegedly accumulating ill-gotten wealth for the past 15 years.

Elmer Luceño Olores, an agrarian affairs specialist at the state lender, may also be preventively suspended without pay pending investigation of the administrative and criminal cases by the Office of the Ombudsman, according to the Department of Finance.

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Records from the department's Revenue Integrity Protection Service (RIPS) show that Olores failed to submit his sworn Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALNs) for 14 years, and reported conflicting information in the same documents.

Olores, who is presently stationed at LBP–Agrarian Operations Center (AOC) in Davao, supposedly did not report several assets in his SALNs, which includes the following: a 400-square meter residential lot in Quirino District, Padada, Davao del Sur; a two-storey residential house in Babak, Samal Island; and a couple of motorcycles registered separately in his name and that of his wife.

He also failed to disclose any cash on hand or in any bank account.

On top of these allegations, Olores was found to have failed to file his SALNs for the years 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, and 2009, in violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

After conferring the matter with personnel administration department of Land Bank, the investigation shows that Olares only furnished copies of his SALN for the years 2008 and 2010 only.

A separate certification from the Office of the Ombudsman in Mindanao last December 20 stated that available copies of Olares's SALN are only those for the years 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2010.

Apart from his salary, Olares and his family had no additional income streams that would enable them to accumulate their present properties, the RIPS said.

His SALNs revealed that in 1990, Olores declared only a handful of personal assets, such as a typewriter and a Honda motorcycle CG125 worth P5,000 and P13,500, respectively, while he did not report any real property under his name.

In 1996, however, barely a year after his appointment to his current position, his assets ballooned to P409,000, consisting of farm lots in Trento and Rosario, both in Agusan del Sur; a chainsaw; and three personal vehicles, namely: Fuso Canter UV, Ford Fierra, and a motorcycle.

During that time, he was only receiving an annual gross compensation of P123,600.

Meanwhile, Olores declared in his SALN that he purchased farm lots in Panabo, Davao del Norte and Tagbina, Surigao del Sur, for the aggregate amounts of P380,000 sometime in 2000 and 2001.

However, his gross salaries for the same years were only P181,200 and P193,200, respectively.

Based on his SALNs, it appeared that in 2005, for only P270,000, Olores managed to acquire a Fuso Canter Light Truck and a Mitsubishi Mini Dump Truck, while earning only P282,000 for that year.

In 2007, Olores’ SALNs disclosed that he acquired a Mitsubishi Pajero for P280,000 and a chainsaw for P50,000 while infused P140,000 in his cattle investment. He also paid off a P300,000-bank loan although he only had an annual income of P301,140 excluding taxes.

For 2010, Olores said he had acquired a P450,000–worth John Deere farm tractor yet his reported gross salary was only P318,660 per year.

Similarly, Olores's SALNs divulged more than a few discrepancies regarding his total assets, as it was found out that several real and personal properties were belatedly declared when these were purchased years ago.

If found criminally and administratively liable, Olores will be dismissed from the service while his properties will be forfeited by the government in accordance with Republic Act 1379 or the Forfeiture of Ill-Gotten Wealth.

Since 2003, the finance department’s anti-corruption arm has initiated 103 graft and lifestyle cases against 144 personalities, 60 of whom were suspended from office while 21 of them were dismissed from service. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)