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Thursday, July 17, 2003
Customs officials sacked for graft
By Karlon N. Rama
With Elias O. Baquero
CEBU -- The Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas has dismissed two Bureau of Customs (BOC) officials and suspended another one from service for six months for allegedly demanding money from an importer.
Sources from within the anti-graft office said criminal charges are also being prepared against Ramon Anquilan, Francis Vic Alindogan and Jose Dayot.
Both Anquilan and Alindogan were dismissed, while Dayot was suspended.
The three allegedly demanded money from one Elizabeth Cabauatan of Dumaguete City last July 11, 2002. Anquilan, former deputy collector for operations, was the Dumaguete sub-port collector at that time.
But on the same day his dismissal order was issued, Anquilan was also named the new chief of assessment in the Bureau of Customs Port of Cebu.
Deputy Collector Frank Logarta was ordered replaced by District Collector Billy Bibit, despite surplus collections of P189 million from January to June 2003.
Bibit, in an interview, said he only wanted to make changes in “an organization that is not anymore responsive to the present needs.”
He did not elaborate but promised to explain when he returns from an out-of-town engagement.
Logarta said he might have fallen victim to the maneuverings of some office people and a powerful port stakeholder.
Anquilan, for his part, refused to comment on the ombudsman’s decision. But he said he will assume his new post Thursday.
Ombudsman officials refused to give copies of the resolution and decision on Anquilan’s case, saying these are yet to be formally served to the respondents.
However, three sources separately confirmed the issuance of the resolution and decision and revealed that Deputy Ombudsman Primo Miro approved it last Tuesday.
According to the complainant, Anquilan, Alindogan and Dayot, along with some others, went to her house and, in the absence of any order, opened, inspected and padlocked a cargo van containing personal effects she brought from abroad.
Cabauatan said Anquilan then asked her to pay P120,000 in exchange for releasing the cargo back to her, but she refused because she had already cleared her cargo through customs and paid tariff and taxes.
She said Anquilan, upon seeing the documentation of her payment, reduced the amount to P50,000, which she still refused. Anquilan eventually released the cargo.
In his counter-affidavit, Anquilan said that while it is true he opened, inspected and padlocked Cabauatan’s cargo, it was because he had received reports it was a shipment of guns.
He cited good faith as his defense and explained that he, being sub-port collector, did not need special court orders to do what he did because of the alleged nature of the shipment.
The anti-graft office, however, found that his actuation “contradicted” his claim of good faith and ordered his dismissal. Sun.Star Cebu
(July 17, 2003 issue)
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