Palace junks appeal of fired Customs men
Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr.: Public employees must be beyond suspicion
Malacañang has denied the appeal of anti-smuggling personnel of the Bureau of Customs (BoC) who were dismissed for alleged extortion charges in January, saying there is basis for the complaint filed against them by a steel firm.
Dismissed with finality are Christopher Dy Buco, Edgar Quiñones, Francisco Fernandez, Alfredo Adao, Jose Elmer Velarde, Thomas Patric Relucio and Jim Erick Acosta, former members of the Run After the Smugglers (RATS) team of the BoC.
The former RATS head, Deputy Commissioner Gregorio Chavez, was also dismissed in January, but he did not file an appeal.
“[The] respondents [were] public employees. They are thus required to conduct themselves with propriety and decorum. Their actions must be beyond suspicion. In this case, they simply failed to comply with the strict and rigorous standards required of all public officers and employees and for that they will have to pay dearly for it,” the Office of the President said in a decision penned by Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr.
On the complaint that the Office of the President has no authority over the employees because they were not presidential appointees, the Palace insisted that its authority to discipline government employees is not limited to appointees.
The dismissal of the seven RATS members and the deputy commissioner came after the filing of an extortion complaint with the Office of the President by Sanyo Seiki Stainless Steel Corp.
Sanyo Seiki accused the RATS personnel of asking for multimillion pesos in bribe in exchange for operating without smuggling charges.
RATS charged Sanyo Seiki of engaging in smuggling activities last year, but the steel firm denied the accusation. The company said the smuggling case was filed by the Customs personnel only as a form of extortion.
Sanyo Seiki said it was pleased with the decision of the Office of the President.
“We laud and very much welcome the resolution by the Office of the President as it will definitely strengthen and hopefully hasten a favorable decision for the separate cases we filed before the Office of the Ombudsman,” Frank Chavez, lawyer for Sanyo Seiki, said in a statement.
The dismissed Customs employees, however, insisted that Sanyo Seiki was a known big-time smuggler. They said their dismissal from service was a punishment for pursuing a company that has strong influence on some government officials.
