Hontiveros puzzled by high net worth of 2 BI officials in ‘pastillas scheme’

Sen. Risa Hontiveros (File photo by JOSEPH VIDAL / Senate PRIB)

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Risa Hontiveros criticized immigration officials linked to the alleged “pastillas scheme” for what she called “classic corrupt moves” for having high net worths that did not seem to match their monthly salaries.

During the Senate hearing into the purported money-making scheme within the Bureau of Immigration, Hontiveros inquired about the monthly salaries of former Ports Operation Division chief Marc Red Mariñas and his “staff assistant” Fidel Mendoza — both implicated in the scheme by her informant Immigration Officer I Allison Chiong.

Mariñas told the Senate Committee on Women, which Hontiveros chairs, that he was getting around P24,000 (Salary Grade 13) monthly during his stint at the BI.

“Maybe around P24,000 — plus the augmentation pay, although that was removed in our time from 2017 up to third quarter of 2018,” Mariñas said, speaking partly in Filipino.

Hontiveros wondered how he could finance a political campaign with a monthly salary of P24,000.

“With Salary Grade 13, P24,000 a month plus augmentation — but the augmentation was removed — so P24,000 a month. But you were able to run for mayor?” she said.

Mariñas was appointed head of the Port Operations Division (POD) in July 2016 but resigned to run for mayor of Muntinlupa in 2018.

Hontiveros then asked him if how much he spent on his campaign.

“At this moment, I do not recall the exact figures of how much we spent,” he said. But he noted that he had submitted to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) his statement of expenditures.

At this point, Hontiveros asked the former POD chief if he had been submitting his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) in previous years — to which Mariñas answered in the affirmative.

However, the senator countered this and said that, based records her office was able to obtain, Mariñas had failed to submit his SALN for the years 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018.

“That is a violation of the code of conduct of government officials,” she reminded Mariñas.

The former BI official explained to the committee that his failure to submit his SALN was due to the loss of his 201-file.

“And I’m not the only one. There were two of us. They lost our 201 files and they were not with personnel. It’s not only my SALN but my whole file in the personnel section of the Bureau of Immigration that were lost,” he said.

“All of us working in government, even if our 201 files get lost, don’t lose the obligation to file our SALNs every year,” Hontiveros said.

For the year that Mariñas was able to report his SALN, which was in 2017, his stated net worth was P5,545,000, Hontiveros noted.

She then disclosed the net worth of Fidel Mendoza, who Mariñas insisted was his only “staff assistant.”

Earlier, Hontiveros asked the Mariñas to confirm whether or not Mendoza — whose rank was security guard II— was designated as his chief of staff, according to reports she had received.

“So his rank was security guard. You made him, according to my reports, chief of staff. Now you’re saying that from of security guard you made him a staff assistant,” she said.

Mariñas answered: “When I was designated acting chief POD — we can check the record that the personnel order — Mr. Fidel Mendoza was (my) staff assistant who assisted me in all my documents, in all my meetings and all my outside the office meetings and all of the needs of the office. Not as my chief of staff.”

Then Hontiveros noted that Mendoza, as stated in his SALNs in 2017 and 2018, reported net worths of P9.9 million and P7.8 million, respectively.

“This is such a mystery,” Hontiveros said. “How could that be? A security guard — or  chief of staff to my knowledge or as you said staff assistant — was able to file [a net worth] that is higher than that of the acting chief of POD?”

Asked about his salary, Mendoza told the committee that was getting P11,000 monthly plus an augmentation pay of P20,000.

In total, his pay amounted to P31,000 a month.

According to Mendoza, who is currently assigned to the BI administrative division, he has a construction business that he put up using the savings he accumulated when he worked in Japan for 10 years.

He said he was a seaman who worked in Japan for 10 years, coming home in 2003. Then he had a part-time construction job, acting as a subcontractor to some of his friends who were general contractors.

At the end of the hearing, Hontiveros was still skeptical about the discrepancies in the SALNs of both Mariñas and Mendoza.

Both also denied knowledge of the so-called pastillas scheme.

“[Someone with] Salary Grade 13, around P24,000 monthly, but was able to run for mayor with a net worth of P5 million? A staff assistant o security guard with a net worth of P7 million?” Hontiveros said in her closing statement.

“Lost SALNs, net worths that don’t match the salary grade — these are nothing new. These are classic corrupt moves. You’ve clearly been exposed, but still you deny it and feign ignorance,” she went on.

Hontiveros then noted that her committee would recommend that BI officials undergo a lifestyle check.

/atm