DISGRACE. Bureau of Immigration employees involved in the airport bribery scheme are summoned by former president Rodrigo Duterte to Malacañang Palace in Manila on Nov. 9, 2020. The scam involved airport immigration officers who allow the entry of Chinese passengers and other foreigners without screening in exchange for bribes. (Contributed photo)
MANILA –The Court of Appeals (CA) has found an immigration official and five employees administratively liable for their part in the so-called “pastillas” bribery scam.
The appellate court’s Fifth Division affirmed the Ombudsman’s March 21, 2022 decision for grave misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the best interests of the service against and denied the appeal of BI Travel Control and Enforcement Unit members Chevy Chase Naniong, Deon Albao, Daniel Binsol, and Fidel Mendoza, who controlled and managed the scheme and had contacts with the involved foreign nationals.
The scam, which was exposed in 2020, involved airport immigration officers who allowed the entry of Chinese passengers and other foreigners without screening by the Bureau of Immigration (BI) in exchange for bribes.
The bribe money, which reportedly reached as much as PHP10,000 per passenger, are rolled to look like pastillas, the Filipino soft candy made of carabao’s milk.
The 28-page decision promulgated June 29 and made public Monday also modified the Ombudsman ruling against Grifton Medina, then the acting chief of the Ports Operations Division (POD), who was instead found guilty of simple neglect of duty and ordered suspended for six months.
Medina was found liable for failing to act on the scam.
“To the Court, these allegations sufficiently depicted an omission to perform as necessitated by circumstances and substantiated a charge of neglect of duty,” read the CA decision on Medina.
In June last year, the Ombudsman ordered the dismissal of 45 BI employees “for grave misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service” and were meted the penalty of dismissal from the service.
“The power of a state to exclude aliens from its territory is an essential exercise of jurisdiction over its own territory. It is part of a state’s independence. The issue of immigration or entry of foreigners into the country is not a simple administrative matter that may be brushed aside by the government and the public,” the Ombudsman ruled then.
Those who were separated from public office before the Ombudsman decision were fined equivalent to one year’s worth of salary.
The POD, which runs BI offices in the seaports and airports, was deactivated in February as part of efforts to reform the agency and decentralize operations. (PNA)
