Graft charges have been filed against an intelligence officer of the finance department who allegedly tried to bribe two customs employees into releasing a shipment of counterfeit footwear products.
The case against Ruben Anthony Frugoso, intelligence officer III of the Department of Finance (DOF) Central Management Information Office, was filed last week in the Manila Regional Trial Court.
This was after Assistant City Prosecutor Minerva Alejandria-Bautista recommended the filing of the charges, saying Frugoso’s mere denial was self-serving and the case against him should be threshed out in court.
The DOF officer was also charged with two counts of violating the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act after he reportedly tried to induce the customs employees into releasing the shipment by introducing himself as a member of the DOF Revenue Integrity Protection Service.
Marlon Agaceta, chief of staff of the district collector of the Port of Manila under the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and staff member Paulino Elevado IV said Frugoso offered them P50,000 each on separate instances in November 2010.
Agaceta said two shipments consigned to RDCM Enterprises arrived on Nov. 3, 2010. Upon receiving a tip, he ordered the inspection of the shipment on Nov. 8 and discovered that it contained fake Havaianas slippers.
He said Frugoso stopped the conduct of further inspections and threatened to ruin his and the district collector’s reputation by coming out with fabricated stories against them with the help of a business partner who was also a media man.
Agaceta, however, said he issued an alert notice for the shipment and a seizure warrant for the other vans that had already been released. It was at this time that Frugoso approached him with the P50,000 offer. When Agaceta turned it down, Frugoso went to Elevado.
In his counteraffidavit, Frugoso denied the allegations and said he was being falsely charged because he was collecting information on the complainants’ extortion activities and had filed a case in the Office of the Ombudsman against them.
Agaceta countered that the Ombudman case was filed months after the present complaint. He said Frugoso had no business investigating any official because he was on a floating status and the case filed in the Ombudsman’s office was not officially approved by the DOF.
The Inquirer earlier reported that Elevado resigned from the BOC last year after he and a companion shot at and beat up a college student in a traffic altercation on South Luzon Expressway in January 2012.
His case became more controversial when it was discovered that he was then driving a Porsche worth at least P5 million although he was earning less than P10,000 a month.