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Saturday, November 12, 2005
Customs chief assails timing of graft rap
A MANILA-based group has filed a graft compliant against Cebu Customs Collector Lour-des Mangaoang, accusing her of maintaining a lifestyle impossible to sustain with a government paycheck.
The group, which calls itself the Citizens’ Action for the Restoration of Ethics in Governance and Social Transformation
(Citizens’ Arrest), filed their four-page complaint before Presidential Anti-Graft Commission last Nov. 8.
Burden of proof
Mangaoang was in a meeting and declined to be interviewed when sought for comment last night.
But she denied the allegation in an SMS message and said the complainants have not submitted any evidence to substantiate their claim.
“They just want to persecute me through the media. The burden of proof is on those who made the allegations,” she said.
“The demolition job by people who want my position and those who want me out of Cebu” will not gain ground, the customs official said.
Suspicion
Mangaoang suspects that persons whose anomalous activities inside the Bureau of Customs were halted when she took control of the office from Billy Bibit are behind the charges.
“The timing is so suspicious. They want to embarrass me before the whole Asean Directors General of Customs,” she said.
The Asean Directors General of Customs are having their 14th international assembly starting today.
In an affidavit signed by Simeon Marcial and Paz del Mundo, Citizens’ Arrest executive director and secretary general, respectively, Mangaoang allegedly went on a series of trips abroad from March 2000 until November 2003.
Her destination included California, Bangkok and Germany.
She also made recent trips this year, according to the complaint.
“On Feb. 25, 2005, the respondent took a one-way flight on board Philippine Airlines flight 306 and, after eight days, returned on board Malaysian Airlines flight 704. Her previous Bureau of Immigration records also indicate travel to Hong Kong,” the complaint read.
Maiden name
Marcial and del Mundo, who only listed their address on Fajardo St. in Sampaloc, Manila, said the trips were not noticed because Mangaoang used her maiden name, Villamar, in the travel documents.
“The use of Collector Lourdes Mangaoang of a passport bearing a name or surname different from her name in her employment or appointment with the Bureau of Customs is a deliberate attempt to conceal her wanderlust and frequent unofficial travels abroad, which are clearly and manifestly beyond her means, considering her official salary as a government functionary,” the group said.
Mangaoang confirmed that there were indeed trips abroad but said these were all covered by travel authority.
As to the use of Villamar, she said there is no crime committed.
“There is nothing illegal with that. That is allowed by the Civil Code. I am actually applying with the civil service to change my name (as reflected in her government appointment papers) to Villamar. My marriage has been annulled many years ago,” she said.
Fleet
Other than the trips, the complainants also said the official keeps a number of houses and a fleet of expensive cars, both here in Cebu and in Manila.
The cars include a 2004 Isuzu Trooper, a 2005 Ford Everest, a Starex Van, a Ford F150 truck, and two sedans.
Marcial and del Mundo said she has one house in Jestra Village, Parañaque City and another house in BF Homes, also in Parañaque. They said she also rents a townhouse in Banilad, Cebu City.
“The acquisition costs of the two houses and the cars are all manifestly out of proportion and clearly in excess of the respondent’s official salary as Customs Collector,” the complainants said.
Mangaoang said these are bare allegations.
“The burden of proof is on the one who makes the allegations,” she reiterated.
(November 12, 2005 issue)
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