BI employee seeks probe of appointments ‘diversion’ at DOJ
The camp of presumptive President-elect Rodrigo Duterte led by Justice Secretary-designate Vitaliano Aguirre. YUJI VINCENT GONZALES/INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
An immigration employee is seeking the help of incoming Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre to probe the case of his missing appointment papers.
Immigration employee Imra-ali Sabdullah, Immigration Officer 1 at BI-Cebu, whose promotion papers are mysteriously missing at the Department of Justice (DOJ), said his new position was given by Justice Secretary Emmanuel Caparas to an outsider who is not an employee of the bureau. The BI is under the DOJ.
In his letter to Aguirre which was coursed through Filipino Alliance for Transparency and Empowerment (FATE), Sabdullah, who has been with the BI for almost 30 years, said he inquired several times about his appointment paper but got no clear answer.
Eventually, he said he learned that his position was given by the DOJ to someone who was not part of the final list of BI appointments recommended and endorsed by BI Commissioner Ronaldo Geron to the DOJ for approval by Caparas.
“Because of the fraudulent and anomalous act committed by the person in charge of BI appointments, Sabdullah said his appointment was not endorsed to the Civil Service Commission (CSC).”
Sabdullah was among the 18 BI employees interviewed for promotion to two vacant positions of Immigration Officer 3.
Last January, he was told by Mary Ann Caranto of BI Personnel Selection Board and chief of the BI Administrative Division, that he successfully passed the interview and that his name was included in the short list of applicants that was forwarded to the DOJ to select the final appointees for the two vacant items.
After being selected from the short list, the BI proposed his appointment for promotion to Immigration Officer 3 through an endorsement letter dated March 23, 2016, sent to the DOJ and received by the DOJ on March 28.
The following day, March 29, he got a fax message from the BI Personnel Selection Board directing him to personally submit his credentials to the BI Personnel Section at BI Central Office in Manila. The Personnel Office told him to immediately go to Manila to sign papers necessary for the attestation of his appointment.
In Manila, however, he received information from a co-employee that the DOJ already transmitted the approved appointments and his name was not included.
He personally met BI Personnel Officer Rosalyn Sentin, who told him that “one of the positions of Immigration Officer III with item No. BIB-IMGO3-29-199 which was awarded to me by the Bureau of Immigration was given to an outsider.”
He added that the DOJ also suspended him for 90 days on a neglect of duty complaint that he already answered a year ago.
“With the forgoing facts, I hope these intended offenses and serious irregularities committed by the in-charge of BI appointments be subjected to penal sanction with my plea that my pending appointment shall be processed and approved by the new leadership of the Honorable Secretary Aguire II, and as the representative of President Digong Duterte, I believed he stand by his principle and slogan of a ‘Corrupt Free Government’ and will not tolerate any irregularities which are in flagrant violation of the law, these rules and regulations of the Civil Service Commission and the Bureau’s Merit Selection Plan (MSP),” Sabdullah asked Aguirre.
Earlier, the group FATE called on the incoming DOJ chief to conduct an investigation on the questionable activities at the DOJ.
The group through spokesperson Jo Perez claimed that Caparas meddled with cases to favor certain parties in exchange for a price.
Caparas found the allegations amusing and dared FATE to show proof of their claims.
