The Office of the Ombudsman has dismissed from the service an employee of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) who was found guilty of grave misconduct and serious dishonesty for amassing P6.2 million-worth of unexplained wealth.

Dismissed from the service with forfeiture of his benefits and privileges as a government employee was Michael Ben Icban, an intelligence officer of the BOC.

In a separate case, the Court of Appeals (CA) affirmed with finality a ruling by the Ombudsman that found another BOC employee–Supervising Customs Operation Officer Zaldy Almoradie–guilty of simple dishonesty for misrepresenting an entry in his Personal Data Sheet (PDS).

The CA’s final and executory ruling also upheld the Ombudsman’s order on Almoradie’s three-month suspension without pay.

Both decisions by the CA and the Ombudsman stemmed from complaints filed by the Department of Finance-Revenue Integrity Protection Service (DOF-RIPS) against the two BOC employees.

In the case of Icban, the DOF-RIPS found him to have made several untruthful declarations in his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) regarding his real estate property in Antipolo and his Honda Civic motor vehicle.

Icban also failed to declare two firearms he owns in his SALN, the DOF-RIPS said in its complaint against him before the Ombudsman.

As for Almoradie, the DOF-RIPS said he answered “No” in his PDA to the question: “Have you ever been formally charged?” despite being previously preventively suspended from office by the BOC from September 24 to December 23, 2008, pending charges filed against him for Grave Misconduct and Conduct Prejudicial to the Best Interest of the Service.

In dismissing Icban from the service, the Ombudsman also ordered his perpetual disqualification to hold public office and the initiation of forfeiture proceedings before a regular court for the recovery of his unexplained wealth that the anti-graft body computed to have amounted to P6,259,187.75.

The Ombudsman affirmed the DOF-RIPS finding that this amount was grossly disproportionate to the income of Icban, whose only steady source of lawful earnings was his salary in the BOC. The DOF-RIPS filed a complaint before the Ombudsman after the conduct of an investigation and lifestyle check on Icban.

“The Revenue Integrity Protection Service is authorized by law to track properties and assets, so let this be fair warning to those with dishonest intentions. In support of President Duterte’s war on corruption, we will not relent in pursuing the bad apples in the DOF family,” said Finance Undersecretary Bayani Agabin, who heads the Department’s Legal Service and oversees the DOF-RIPS.

The Ombudsman also recommended the filing in court of eight (8) counts of perjury against Icban for willfully and deliberately filing false, untruthful, and incomplete SALNs from 2007 to 2014.

In its decision, the Ombudsman affirmed the findings by DOF-RIPS that Icban acquired unexplained wealth, which ballooned to P6,057,000 by the end of 2014, from a comparatively meager P20,000 of net worth as indicated in his 2003 SALN.

“This Office finds respondent guilty of Grave Misconduct for having transgressed the law, particularly his acquisition of unexplained wealth .… as well as Serious Dishonesty for his deliberate failure to disclose all of his supposed properties in his SALN and for stating under oath that the declarations therein are true and correct,” the Ombudsman said.

In his defense, Icban denied making false declarations in his SALNs and amassing unexplained wealth.

Icban assailed the DOF-RIPS finding that his government salary was his only source of income, claiming that his parents were his biggest sources of additional funds and monetary support.

The Ombudsman, however, found Icban’s defense as “simply astounding” and said he “failed to rebut by clear and convincing evidence” the DOF-RIP’s allegation that he acquired unexplained wealth.

Except for his parents’ affidavit affirming his love and generosity for him, the Ombudsman said Icban was not able to present solid proof to show his parents’ financial capacity to make substantial loans and donations to him.

Icban also failed to present evidence to support his claim of other sources of funds, the Ombudsman said.

In the case against Almoradie, the complaint filed by the DOF-RIPS against him was for various violations of SALN laws, and for making material misrepresentation in his Personal Data Sheet.

While Almoradie was not held liable for his false and erroneous declarations in his SALNs, the Ombudsman found him guilty of Simple Dishonesty for his misrepresentation in his PDS.

The CA upheld the Ombudsman’s ruling that his act constituted Simple Dishonesty under Section 5 of Civil Service Commission (CSC) Resolution No. 06-0538 issued on April 4, 2006.

The RIPS is the anti-corruption arm of the DOF.

RIPS is encouraging the public to immediately report any suspicious activities and transactions in the attached agencies of the DOF (e.g. BOC, Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), through its Information Against Corruption page, which can be accessed using the URL https://www.dof.gov.ph/report-corruption/.

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